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STATE GOVERNMENT 



IN 



PENNSYLVANIA 



A MANUAL OF 
PRACTICAL CITIZENSHIP 



By SAMUEL Br o SCOTT 

OF THE PHILADELPHIA BAR 

Member House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, 1907-1914 



Philadelphia 

THE HARPER PRESS 

1012-20 Chancellor Street 

1917 



6 
1? 






^ 



Copyright 1917 
Harper Printing Company 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES. 

DEC-! 1917 
CGLA477790 






HAVING been born a citizen of a free State, and a 
member of the sovereign body, however feeble an 
influence my voice may bave in public affairs, the 
right to vote upon them is sufficient to impose on me the 
duty of informing myself about them ; and I feel happy, 
whenever I meditate on governments, always to discover 
in my researches new reasons for loving that of my own 
country. 

Rousseau. Social Contract. Book I. 
Introductory note. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 



THE author gratefully acknowledges the willing re- 
sponse that has invariably met his requests for 
information and assistance. Especially he de- 
sires to thank the Legislative Reference Bureau and its 
able staff, past and present; Hon. T. Henry Walnut, who 
was Chairman of the Committee on Elections in the 
Pennsylvania House of Representatives during the ses- 
sion of 1913, at which session sweeping improvements 
were effected in the election laws, and who reviewed the 
manuscript of the chapter on elections ; E. Bartram Rich- 
ards, Esq., of the Philadelphia Bar, for valuable sugges- 
tions in connection with the same chapter; Hon. George 
Alter, Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Represen- 
tatives during the session of 1913; Frederick P. Gruen- 
berg, Director of the Bureau of Municipal Research 
(Philadelphia), who reviewed the whole manuscript and 
made many valuable suggestions and amendations ; Hon. 
Robert D. Dripps, Secretary of the Public Charities 
Association, and Kenneth L. M. Pray, Assistant Secre- 
tary, who have furnished valuable material for the chap- 
ter bearing on State Charitable Appropriations. 

Since much of the legal matter in this book is of an 
elementary nature, no effort has been made to furnish a 
citation in support of every statement. The sources are 
the usual tools of the lawyer's trade. But wherever the 
reader might be supposed to desire fuller details than 



VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

could be compressed into a book of this scope, the refer- 
ence to the original authority is given. Special mention 
must be made of SmuWs Legislative Hand Booh. This 
is an official publication of the State of Pennsylvania, ap- 
pearing annually, and is distributed free, on requisition 
by Senators and Members of the House. It is packed 
with useful information about the details of the State 
Government, contains a valuable digest of the election 
laws and much other information useful to anyone who 
would take an active part in public affairs. 

When the book went to press the Pamphlet Laws 
for 1917 were still unissued. This made it impossible to 
give the page in citing 1917 statutes, but the reference 
can easily be found by means of the date of approval, 
which is given when making the citation. 

To my wife a debt of gratitude is due, not alone for 
inspiration and encouragement, but also for her thorough 
examination of the manuscript with the result of remov- 
ing many obscurities of diction and infelicities of expres- 
sion, which would have seriously reduced whatever value 
this work may have. 

S.B. S. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter I. 
State and Nation 1 

Chapter II. 
The Legislature . 10 

Chapter III. 
The Legislature at Work 18 

Chapter IV. 
The Legislature at Play 30 

Chapter V. 
The Legislature Spending Money 40 

Chapter VI. 
Legislation as an Instrument of Progress 56 

Chapter VII. 
The Legislative Keference Bureau. Commissions ... 67 

Chapter VIII. 
The Executive 76 

Chapter IX. 
The Public Schools. Professional Qualification ... 86 

Chapter X. 
The Helping Hand of the State 99 

Chapter XL 
The Courts 122 

Chapter XII. 
The Divisions of the State 140 

Chapter XIII. 

Counties 145 

vii 



1 CONTENTS. 

Chapter XIV. 
Cities 150 

Chapter XV. 
Cities of the First Class 156 

Chapter XVI 
Cities of the Second Class 168 

Chapter XVII. 
Cities of the Third Class 171 

Chapter XVIII. 
Boroughs, Incorporated Towns and Townships .... 179 

Chapter XIX. 
Poor Districts. School Districts 187 

Chapter XX. 
Parties in Pennsylvania 193 

Chapter XXI. 
Registration . 207 

Chapter XXII. 
The Primary Election 223 

Chapter XXIII. 
The Election ■ 242 

Chapter XXIV. 
Breaking Into Politics 255 



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Public Service 
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LIVESTOCK SANITABY 
Medical Education a 

Military ".'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 
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Public Grounds anil Buildings 
Quarantine tor Pbilmh-ipliin . . 

To J.bvnse Piivatc Hankers . 
Tnisii',.:; of Slate Library .... 


Workmen's Compensa 
Workmen's Insurance 

Legislative Reference 
Medical Education 


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Soldiers and Sailors Horn.'. 
Soldiers' Orphans' School . 

States Bureau of Mines' . 
To Consider Uriel; Making 

Penitentiary 

To Investigate Increase 

Price of Coal 

To Purchase Land Opposite 



Uniform Legislation 



Water Supply . 
Councils — 
College and Un 



EPABTMENTS 
















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Lake Brie and Oh I 

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52 Statu Institutions 

18 State Librarian 



CHART SHOWING DEPARTMENTS, BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 



i COMPILED BY HARRY S. McDEVITT, SOLIC 



AND EFFICIENCY COMMI 



HAROLD SI. LIPPINCOTT. JANU.« 




CHAPTER I. 

STATE AND NATION. 

WE Pennsylvanians have a right to be proud of 
our Commonwealth. Founded in an age of in- 
tolerance by a man who had himself known 
persecution, it was established upon the firm rock of 
religious freedom, and peopled by men of strong con- 
science from all Europe. Its liberal institutions encour- 
aged rapid growth, and though among the last of the 
colonies founded, it quickly became the first in popula- 
tion. The quality of its citizenship, too, was of the first 
order. As long as the history of the nation's birth is 
cherished, the names of Pennsylvania's early patriots 
will be imperishable. Later the Civil War demonstrated 
that Pennsylvania could still pour forth devoted hosts 
prepared to die for the cause of their country. 

During the period of material prosperity which fol- 
lowed, the politics of the State were dominated by the 
desire to maintain federal legislation which would foster 
that prosperity. Lately, however, there has been gain- 
ing ground the idea that this is not enough, that a govern- 
ment should do more for its people than foster the great- 
est aggregate wealth ; that it should care for the individ- 
ual, and that the well being of each, rather than the total 
wealth of the whole, should be its aim. 

In practice, this idea appears as a whole flood of 
propositions looking to State action for social ameliora- 
tion. Some of these are sound and feasible, some absurd. 
Some are good in principle but poorly framed and inap- 
plicable to present conditions. Some are but recrud- 
escences of ancient error, some flashes of the coming 
dawn. Of whatever nature these propositions may be, 



2 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

they must all be met as the actualities of present day poli- 
tics, and it is self evident that success in meeting them 
and adapting the good in them to our needs must be 
based on a clear understanding of what we already 
possess in our government- as it now exists. 

Democracy proceeds upon the theory that the opinion 
of every citizen is worth taking. The theory is sound, 
but it cannot be denied that in practice the quality of gov- 
ernment attained by any democracy must be determined 
by the worth of the opinions so obtained. It is not enough 
that a people should rule themselves. They must know 
how to rule. They must acquaint themselves with the 
problems they are called upon to solve, and courageously 
assume the responsibilities which the nature of a free 
government entails. 

The dual form of our government requires a knowl- 
edge by each citizen not only of the general problems of 
our national government, but also of the laws and 
institutions peculiar to his own State. No one can 
cast a reasonable vote, much less take an active part 
in the public life of the Commonwealth, unless he 
understands something of the structure of the State gov- 
ernment, the duties of its various officers and the laws 
which regulate the exercise of the right of franchise. The 
tendency to look to the State for the solution of pressing 
social problems is constantly growing, and questions are 
being brought more and more into the political arena 
which were once agitated only in the study and the class 
room. It thus becomes increasingly necessary that each 
citizen, in taking his part in public affairs, should do so 
with intelligence. To shorten his road to the necessary 
equipment is the mission of this book. The veteran may 
think its contents elementary indeed, but the beginner 
will find gathered here material which he could read in 
its original sources only by a discouraging expenditure 
of time and energy. 



STATE AND NATION. O 

To understand our State there must first be a compre- 
hension of the extent of its powers in relation to those of 
the federal government. No question of subordination of 
one of these governments to the other can arise. Each, in 
its own sphere, is supreme. It would be idle, also, to 
speculate as to which government is more important. 
Each is indispensable, therefore each is of the highest 
importance. However, when we come to consider the 
question of which government has the greater variety of 
powers and the greater scope for activity, — which comes 
closer home to the daily life of the average citizen, the 
answer must be unhesitatingly, the State. 

The difference in the scope of the two governments 
flows from a radical difference in their nature. The fed- 
eral government is a government of defined and dele- 
gated powers, the State government is a government 
whose sovereignty is unlimited save by what it has sur- 
rendered. The national legislators, in considering a 
piece of proposed legislation, must ask themselves, 
" Under what provision of the Constitution are we em- 
powered to enact this law?" The State legislators have 
but to ask, "Does any provision of the national or State 
Constitution prevent us from enacting this law?" No- 
where in the national Constitution is the power given to 
legislate on things in general. On the contrary, the vari- 
ous departments of the national government are given 
certain defined powers, and general power is given to the 
Congress only "To make all Laws which shall be neces- 
sary and proper for carrying into execution the fore- 
going Powers, and all other powers vested by this Con- 
stitution in the Government of the United States, or in 
any Department or Office thereof. ' ' x 

This language implies clearly enough that the newly 
erected national government was clothed with no powers 
except those given to it by the instrument of its crea- 

(1) U. S. Const. Art. I, See. 18. Italics the. author's. 



4 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

tion, either in express words or by necessary implication. 
But lest there should be any doubt upon the subject, the 
tenth amendment was promptly adopted, as follows : 

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved 
to the States respectively, or to the people." 

How natural this relationship between State and nation 
is, appears on a brief contemplation of the origin of 
the nation. The thirteen original States are all older 
than the United States, having come into existence 
through that famous Declaration, wherein it was pub- 
lished and declared ' ' That these United Colonies are, and 
of Eight ought to be Free and Independent States/' Thus 
in the compass of a clause Colonies change to States. The 
meaning of the word State as used in this connection 
should be kept clear. We speak so often of States in their 
connection with the general government that we are apt 
to think of a State as simply a unit of a federal system, 
but in the words quoted above, which were penned be- 
fore the Constitution was thought of, the word State had 
no such meaning. It meant then, as it means now when 
strictly used, "independent nation." In the same sen- 
tence of the Declaration the word recurs, and here its 
meaning cannot be mistaken, "And that all political con- 
nection between them and the State of Great Britain, is 
and ought to be totally dissolved. ' ' 

Pennsylvania, then, became a State in the same sense 
as Great Britain was a State, as did each of the other 
colonies. As far as theory is concerned, they might have 
remained so till some Bismarck arose to weld them to- 
gether with blood and iron. But the needs of the situ- 
ation and the political aptitudes of the people soon pro- 
duced union, first under the Articles of Confederation and 
subsequently under the Constitution. By this latter docu- 
ment, as pointed out above, the States divested them- 
selves of certain powers and bestowed them upon the 



STATE AND NATION. 

national government, but in the exercise of what powers 
remained they retained the full vigor of a sovereign na- 
tion. 

In order that the relative scope of the two govern- 
ments may be compared it is necessary to enumerate the 
powers which the Constitution has given to the nation 
and those it has denied the States. Abbreviating the lan- 
guage of the Constitution, they are as follows : 2 

The Congress has power: — 

1. To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises, to pay 
the debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare 
of the United States. 

2. To borrow money. 

3. To regulate interstate commerce. 

4. To legislate on naturalization and bankruptcy. 

5. To coin money and regulate weights and measures. 

6. To punish counterfeiting. 

7. To establish Post Offices and Post Roads. 

8. To regulate Patents and Copyrights. 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court. 

10. To punish crimes on the high seas. 

11. To declare war. 

12. To raise and support armies. 

13. To provide and maintain a Navy. 

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land 
and naval forces. 

15. To provide for calling out the Militia. 

16. And governing the Militia.* 

17. To exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the district of Colum- 
bia. 

18. To make all Laws necessary to carry into execution the 
foregoing powers and powers of other departments. 

The limitations upon the powers of the States are 
expressed as follows : 3 

"1. No state shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance or Confedera- 
tion; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills 
of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in 
Payment of Debts ; pass any Bill of Attainder, or ex post facto Law, 
or law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any title of 
Nobility. 

2. No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any 

(2) Art. I, Sec. 8. 

(3) Art. I, Sec. 10. 



6 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be 
absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net 
produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or 
Exports, shall be for the use of the Treasury of the United States; 
and all such laws shall be subject to the Revision and Control of the 
Congress. 

3. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any 
Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Skips of War in time of Peace, 
enter into any agreement or Compact with another State, or with a 
foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such 
imminent danger as will not admit of delay." 

Thus the sphere of national activity is defined. And 
what is left to the States? Everything else. Subject to 
the enumerated restrictions, all the multiform activities 
of a free and energetic people must be regulated by them 
and the power of their legislatures to pass laws for such 
regulation is unlimited save by the Constitution of the 
State itself. 

The law that comes home to the average citizen is 
State law. He is married by State law. If he marries 
two wives at once, the crime is against State law. If 
he is divorced, it is by State law. The policeman is on 
his beat by virtue of State law, and all the long catalogue 
of crimes he is there to prevent, are crimes against State 
law. When born, he is registered by virtue of State 
law, when he dies State law provides a coroner for un- 
explained deaths, a licensed doctor, a law-regulated ceme- 
tery and rules for the disposition of his property. He 
is schooled under State law; he is sane or insane by 
State law. If a man slips on the ice, under State law 
he sues the city. If he is hit by a trolley car, he sues the 
company under State law. If he fails to pay his bills, by 
State law is he sued. In fact all business is upheld 
and made possible by reason of State law. Anything like 
a catalogue of the activities of a normal State legisla- 
ture is quite out of the question, because the number 
of subjects of legislation is limited only by the fertility 
of the legislative brain. 



STATE AND NATION, 



By emphasizing the sovereign qualities of the States, 
but disregarding the binding nature and irrevocability 
of the act by which a portion of that sovereignty had been 
surrendered, the doctrine of States' rights grew until 
it produced the Civil War. By that war it was decisively 
destroyed, and gave room to a new doctrine, now budding 
and soon to flower into beautiful maturity, — the doctrine 
of "States' duties." By very reason of the fact that 
they are supreme over a large class of matters which 
come home most vitally to the citizen, the duty lies heav- 
ily upon the States to wield that power for his protection 
and upbuilding. In the past this duty has been much 
neglected, but when once it is understood and assumed, 
it will never be abandoned. 

A knowledge of the history of Pennsylvania is not 
indispensable to the practice of present day citizenship. 
Consequently in the description of Pennsylvania to fol- 
low, historical considerations will be omitted except 
when necessary to make plain the matter under consider- 
ation. 

We need go no further back than January 1, 1874, at 
which time the present Constitution went into effect, to 
arrive at the basic law of Pennsylvania. In general struc- 
ture it is a close copy of the Constitution of the United 
States, although the newer document shows greater elab- 
oration and provides against contingencies which exper- 
ience had shown were sure to arise. Both instruments 
begin with the same words, "We, the People," for both 
draw their power from the same source, the popular 
will. 

The bill of rights, which was an afterthought in the 
national Constitution, holds first place as Article 1 of the 
Pennsylvania Constitution. In it are laid down those 
great principles which Anglo-Saxon experience has found 
to lie at the foundation of all free government. A few 
quotations from the Pennsylvania Constitution will il- 



8 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

lustrate their nature. "All men are born equally free 
and independent. ' ' "All power is inherent in the peo- 
ple, and all free governments are founded on their 
authority and instituted for their peace, safety and hap- 
piness/ ' "All men have a natural and indefeasible right 
to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of 
their own consciences." "Elections shall be free and 
equal." "Trial by jury shall be as heretofore, and the 
right thereof remain inviolate." "The printing press 
shall be free to every person who may undertake to 
examine the proceedings of the legislature or any branch 
of government." "No person shall, for the same of- 
fence, be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." "Ex- 
cessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines im- 
posed, nor cruel punishments inflicted." "No ex post 
facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation of con- 
tracts, or making irrevocable any grant of special privi- 
leges or immunities, shall be passed. " " The right of the 
citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the 
State shall not be questioned." 

The kinship of the Pennsylvania Constitution with 
that of the nation is not only verbal, it is fundamental. 
The theory of government dominating both is exactly 
the same. It is very natural that this should be so, since 
the Constitution of the United States has given satisfac- 
tion to its citizens and has survived tests of the sever- 
est character, so that Americans have become proud of 
it and are not ashamed to imitate it. That the close par- 
allel of the Pennsylvania Constitution with that of the 
United States is an imitation and not a spontaneous out- 
growth of similar conditions is indicated by the fact that 
Pennsylvania's first Constitution, adopted in 1776, short- 
ly after the Declaration of Independence, and before the 
Constitution of the United States, provided for quite a 
different scheme of government, one having but a single 
legislative chamber, and a multiheaded executive, called 






STATE AND NATION. 9 

The Supreme Executive Council. The present State 
Constitution, following the lead of its great example, pro- 
vides for a legislature of two branches and a single 
headed executive. 

Before proceeding further it is important that we 
should state the angle of approach. All properly con- 
ducted government is unquestionably a service to the peo- 
ple, but there is a clear distinction between that theory of 
government which looks upon the governing power as 
merely an instrument to keep the peace while each in- 
dividual works out his own salvation, and the theory that 
looks upon the government as wielding, in behalf of the 
people in their struggle for existence and fuller life, the 
power gained by their own co-operation. 

While the theories are distinct, there has never been 
any sharp distinction in practice. The governments of 
State and nation alike have added function after function 
as the people came to see that the government could help 
them. A rough classification of State action can, how- 
ever, be made within the lines of the two theories men- 
tioned, and in the following pages such governmental 
functions as belong to every government will be passed 
over lightly and more attention bestowed upon those as- 
pects of the government in which it is directly striving 
to assist its citizens. It must not be supposed that the 
functions to which we pay less attention are less im- 
portant. They are of the very marrow of the State, and, 
if we were writing from a legal point of view, we should 
be inclined to view the activities now to be most empha- 
sized as the froth of the subject. But others have writ- 
ten of the Constitution from the legal standpoint, 4 and 
now the human point of view needs to be considered. 



(4) An Examination of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, by 
Charles R. Buckalew, Phila. Kay & Brother, 1883. 

■Commentaries on the Constitution of Pennsylvania, by Thomas 
Raeburn White, Phila. T. & J. W. Johnson Co., 1907. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE; LEGISLATURE. 

IN describing the government of Pennsylvania as a 
great social agency, it is fitting that we should begin 

with the Legislature, for this is the branch especially 
designed to discover the wants of the people and to meet 
them by legislation. 

Here is the fountain head of all the State's activities. 
While the executive and judicial branches of the govern- 
ment are coordinate with the legislative, and each has 
its domain wherein the others cannot interfere, the legis- 
lative branch has a peculiar significance, for it is the 
great originating and transforming agency of the State. 
The other branches work in grooves, the one enforcing 
the laws it has not made, the other interpreting and ap- 
plying them. Consequently, it is to the Legislature' that 
everyone comes who feels that conditions should be 
changed. There are always individuals, and frequently 
organized associations, who are bending every energy to 
get something through the legislature. Probably every 
reader either belongs to some such association or has 
been urg^ed to do so. Writing to your Representative is 
one of the most elementary forms of public activity, and 
is frequently undertaken by citizens who can be induced 
to take no other part in the management of community 
affairs. 

The legislative power of Pennsylvania is vested in a 
General Assembly consisting of two houses, the Senate 
and the House of Representatives. The two-chambered 
Legislature is now the standard American practice. In 
fact it may be spoken of as practically universal wher- 
ever representative government is found. There have 

10 



THE LEGISLATURE. 11 

come suggestions from some of the States which serve 
as civic experiment stations for the rest of the country, 
that the State Senates should be abolished. As pointed 
out above, Pennsylvania has had experience with a single- 
chambered Legislature under her first Constitution, and 
promptly changed to the ordinary two-chambered system. 
It does not seem likely that we shall revert to our primi- 
tive condition in this respect. However, if the two 
Houses were exactly similar in composition and method 
of action, it would be difficult to see the value of main- 
taining both. Therefore, it will be worth while to note 
in passing how far the two bodies are similar, and how 
they differ. 

It should ever be borne in mind that the causes which 
make the National Senate and House of Representatives 
such different bodies do not operate fully in the case of 
the two Houses of a State Legislature. The Congress- 
men represent the people directly, and their number is 
proportionate to the population. The Senators repre- 
sent primarily the States, and their number is fixed by 
the number of the States, irrespective of the number of 
their inhabitants. The seventeenth amendment, provid- 
ing for the election of Senators by the people, will tend 
to lessen the distinction between Senators and Eepresen- 
tatives, but the dual nature of our government and its 
history will always cause a marked difference to exist 
between the two bodies. 

In the case of the State government the difference is 
entirely artificial. The basis of representation in each 
body is an arbitrary district, based upon population and 
liable to change with each reapportionment. Even the ar- 
tificial differences, however, have their importance. The 
•Senate is the smaller body. This enhances the impor- 
tance of the individual Senator. The term of the Sena- 
tor is twice that of the Representative, the Senators being 
elected for four years and the Eepresentatives for two. 



12 STATE GOVEKNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

The Senate changes but half its membership each session, 
which makes it a continuous and experienced body, while 
the whole membership of the House is renewed each ses- 
sion, as a snake sloughs its skin. The smaller member- 
ship of the Senate permits business to be transacted with 
far greater dispatch than is possible in the House. It 
also makes it possible to arrange action by personal con- 
ference outside the Senate chamber, a method that is far 
more difficult with the business of the House. Proceed- 
ings in the Senate are usually of a dull, cut and dried 
nature and oratory is rare. In the House the proceedings 
are much livelier. The great size of the hall and the con- 
stant hum of conversation put a premium on stentorian 
speaking, and as it is difficult for the floor leaders to con- 
vey their wishes to so many followers with the requisite 
promptitude, they are driven to frequent speeches so 
that the docile members may know what is expected of 
them. Members of the House who have been elevated to 
the Senate frequently speak of missing the livelier atmos- 
phere of the lower body. 

While both Houses are theoretically of equal power, 
the continuity and compactness of the Senate and the 
general traditions of nation and State unite to make the 
Senate, in practice, the more powerful body. This is 
recognized by the party leaders, who, when they accept 
representative office at all, are to be found in the Senate. 
In turn, their presence in it enhances the relative im- 
portance of that body. A little jealousy occasionally 
crops out between the two Houses, and the Senate has 
come to be known — in the House — as the House of Lords, 
while — in the retiring rooms of the Senate — its coordi- 
nate body is frequently spoken of as the Mad House. 

Senators are supposed to be somewhat more grave 
and reverend than members of the House, so the former 
must not be younger than twenty-five years, while the 
latter may serve at twenty-one. Both must have been 



THE LEGISLATUKE. 13 

citizens and inhabitants of the State four years, and in- 
habitants of their respective districts one year, and must 
reside in their respective districts during their term of 
service. 

The Senators are elected from districts numbered 
from one to fifty, throughout the State. The Represen- 
tative districts are not numbered, except where a county 
is divided into several representative districts. Thus we 
would speak of the Sixth Senatorial District of Pennsyl- 
vania, and the Fifteenth Representative District of Phila- 
delphia County. The boundaries of the districts are fixed 
by law, generally spoken of as apportionment acts. The 
Constitution directs these acts to be passed after each 
United States census but this direction is frequently dis- 
regarded. 

The number of senatorial districts is fixed at fifty, 
each represented by one Senator. The member- 
ship of the House is fixed by a calculation, 
which is intended to keep the membership ap- 
proximately at two hundred. The Constitution lays 
down elaborate rules for the determination of the 
districts in both cases. Among these are a number of re- 
strictive provisions. No county is to form a separate 
senatorial district, unless it contains four-fifths of a 
ratio (a ratio is one-fiftieth of the total population of the 
State), except where the adjoining counties are each en- 
titled to one or more Senators, when such county may be 
assigned a Senator on less than four-fifths and exceeding 
one-half of a ratio. No county is to be divided unless en- 
titled to two or more Senators. One of the most im- 
portant restrictions is little noticed. "No city or county 
shall be entitled to separate representation exceeding one- 
sixth of the whole number of Senators," 1 i. e., no more 
than eight. This provision evidently reflects a fear on 
the part of the State as a whole of the growing relative 

(1) Const. Art. II, Sec. 16. 



14 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

size of the cities. On account of this restriction, Phila- 
delphia is much under-represented, since its population 
entitles it to eleven Senators. However, this under-repre- 
sentation is not felt as a practical hardship, since the 
Philadelphia delegation, owing to its compactness and to 
the political importance of the city as a whole, exercises 
an influence disproportionate to its numbers. 

The very elaborateness of the constitutional pro- 
vision for senatorial districts has defeated its own ends. 
It is said to be mathematically impossible to draw an ap- 
portionment bill that will be entirely constitutional. Any- 
one with a liking for puzzles can ascertain for himself 
whether this is true or not. At any rate the present ap- 
portionment is not constitutional. To illustrate this, 
we have to look no farther than the case of Lancaster 
County, which is divided between two districts, though 
having a population not greatly in excess of one ratio. 

The method of constructing a representative appor- 
tionment is quite as complicated, but not so mathemati- 
cally impossible, because the total number is not fixed. 
The Representative ratio is ascertained by dividing the 
population of the State by two hundred. Every county 
containing less than five ratios has one Representative 
for every full ratio, and an additional Representative 
when the surplus exceeds half a ratio, but each county 
must have at least one Representative. When a county 
grows large enough to have five full ratios, it cannot have 
any Representative for its major fraction of a ratio. 
Again, the jealousy of the populous counties is displayed. 
Every city containing a population equal to a ratio elects 
separately its proportion of the Representatives allot- 
ted to the county in which it is located. Every city en- 
titled to more than four Representatives, and every 
county having more than one hundred thousand inhabi- 
tants is divided into districts of compact and contiguous 
territory, each district electing its own proportion of 



THE LEGISLATIVE. 15 

representatives according to its population, but no dis- 
trict elects more than four Representatives. This latter 
provision explains the fact that some districts elect more 
than one member, as the Fifteenth and Seventeenth of 
Philadelphia County. 

The General Assembly meets at twelve o'clock noon 
on the first Tuesday of January every second year (the 
odd numbered years). Many States have a session of 
their Legislature every year. In these States the Repre- 
sentatives are either legislating or campaigning all the 
time, so they have little time to carry on any normal voca- 
tion, and become part of the society they are supposed to 
represent. Pennsylvania's plan of one session every two 
years seems to be as satisfactory a scheme as can be sug- 
gested. Special sessions may be called by the Governor 
whenever he thinks expedient, but such a session can con- 
sider only the subjects mentioned in the call. 

The Constitution provides that the members of the 
General Assembly shall be paid; the amount to be de- 
termined by law. The amount now fixed is $1500 for 
each regular session, and $500 for a special session, to- 
gether with mileage at twenty cents a mile circular (once 
to Harrisburg and back) and also together with one hun- 
dred dollars' worth of stamps and fifty dollars for 
stationery. As the State furnishes a bewildering amount 
of stationery in addition, ranging from a pen point to a 
pearl handled knife containing a bottle opener and a cork- 
screw, the stationery allowance may be treated as that 
much more salary. It is frequently assumed that the 
salary of the Senator is larger than that of the Repre- 
sentative. This is not the case, and the reason resides 
deep in human nature. No House of Representatives 
would pass a bill that provided more pay for Senators 
than for themselves. The same is true of the national 
government. August as a United States Senator is, he 
receives no more pay than the youngest member. The 



16 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

legislators think that the salary is inadequate, as is evi- 
denced by the regular way in which they pass bills to 
increase it for their successors (the Constitution forbids 
them to increase it for themselves), 2 and the governors 
seem to entertain opposite views, judging from the equal- 
ly regular way in which they veto these bills. 3 

The Lieutenant Governor is, under the Constitution, 
President of the Senate, where he has no vote except to 
break a tie. Following the lead of the national Constitu- 
tion, provision was made for the election by the Senate 
itself of a president pro tempore to perform the duties 
of the Lieutenant Governor in case of his absence or dis- 
ability, or whenever the office of Lieutenant Governor is 
vacant. Lieutenant Governors differ very much in the 
degree to which they exercise their functions as president 
of the Senate. These functions have remained unexer- 
cised sufficiently often to give quite an importance to the 
office of president pro tempore. When the president of 
the Senate is spoken of, without further designation, it 
is usually the president pro tempore, and not the Lieu- 
tenant Governor, who is meant. 

The House is presided over by one of its members 
elected Speaker. As in the National House of Represen- 
tatives, the Speakership is an office of great power. It is 
usual to elect the leader of the majority party, and he is 
not expected to lay down his partisanship when he takes 
up the gavel. While it is never considered justifiable to 
violate settled parliamentary law in rendering decisions 
for partisan purposes, although this is not unknown, yet 

(2) Art. II, Sec. 8. 

The proposed New York constitution of 1915 increased the pay 
of legislators in that State from $1,500 to $2,500 per annum. Art. 
Ill, Sec. 8. 

(3) The last effort to increase the salary of legislators was made 
in the session of 1917, when a bill was passed, (House Bill No. 751) 
raising the salary to $2,500 a year, but met the usual fate at the hands 
of the Governor. 



THE LEGISLATURE. 17 

in the appointment of committees, and in the reference 
of bills, as well as in a multitude of subtle ways, he makes 
his power count for the ends of his party. For many 
years past there has been growing in Congress the feel- 
ing that the Speaker was too much an autocrat, and final- 
ly, by what might almost be called a revolution, he was 
deprived of the greatest source of his power, the ap- 
pointment of committees. The session of the Pennsyl- 
vania Legislature in 1913 met after the election at which 
Theodore Roosevelt swept the State, and naturally felt 
inclined to show as much of a progressive spirit in its 
own organization as possible. Consequently, before a 
Speaker was elected, a committee on committees was con- 
stituted, charged with the duty, among other things, of 
revising the rules and nominating members for the vari- 
ous standing committees. Thus the Speaker was shorn 
of much of his appointing power, and, by the revised 
rules, the undue power of committees over bills in their 
charge was removed. A reaction at the next session has 
restored to the Speaker his appointing power, and 
strengthened the grip of committees upon the bills re- 
ferred to them, but many traces of the advances made in 
1913 still remain, and it is likely to be some time before 
the speakership will be the despotic power that once it 
was. 

From the foregoing brief summary, it may be seen 
how closely the legislative branch of the government of 
Pennsylvania is modeled after that of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, in spite of the fact that the State government 
is a unit and not a federal aggregation. In the next chap- 
ters some account of its methods of working will be 
given. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE LEGISLATURE AT WORK. 



A FAIR idea of the Legislature cannot he gained 
by a casual visit. Its moods are diverse; its ac- 
tivities at different times radically different. One 
visitor might report that the Legislature was utterly 
careless and droned through its vital public work without 
bestowing any attention upon it whatever. Another 
might describe it as electric with interest and unceasingly 
at work. One might find it solemn and dignified, another 
condemn it as made up of peculiarly unrestrained school- 
boys old enough to know better. Each would be telling 
the truth as he saw it. but the vision would be too partial 
to be true. It is hoped, as far as may be in the restraint 
of a few chapters, to give a fairly balanced picture of the 
Legislature as it actually is. Most of what will be said is 
particularly applicable to the House of Representatives, 
but in all essentials of procedure the Houses are much 
alike. Much, too, is equally applicable to any of our 
State Legislatures, or, indeed, of any representative body 
anywhere. But as our aim is to describe our Legislature 
rather than to present a study in comparative legislative 
procedure, little attempt will be made to discriminate be- 
tween what is peculiar to Pennsylvania and what is typi- 
cal of legislative bodies in general. 

The doings of the Legislature are conditioned by three 
sources of authority. First and most important is the 
Constitution, which contains many provisions regTilating 
legislative procedure. Xext come the rules, each House 
adopting its own at the beginning of each session. Final- 
ly, there is an intangible body of habit and tradition 
which has gradually grown up and has a great influence 

18 



THE LEGISLATUKE AT WORK. 19 

on the way things are done, but which cannot be reduced 
to writing or cited in a footnote. In the constitutional 
directions we may find a thread to guide us in the de- 
scription of the Legislature. 

Let us suppose that we have come to Harrisburg in- 
tent on having some idea transmuted into law. We first 
look up the Senator or Representative from our district, 
and present the matter to him. Then commences our edu- 
cation. We learn that "No law shall be passed except by 
bill. ' ' 1 Clearly then it is necessary to reduce our idea 
to the form of a bill. The first clause of a bill is known 
as the enacting clause, and reads uniformly as follows: 
' ' Be it enacted and it is hereby enacted by the Senate and 
House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania in General Assembly met." The exact words 
are here given because in the laws as published, and else- 
where, they are generally abbreviated to, "Be it enacted, 
etc.", and it is not always easy to lay hands on the pre- 
cise formula when wanted, though the bill is not properly 
drawn without it. 

We are also told by our Representative that the rules 
of the House require that all bills should be presented in 
triplicate. One copy goes to the printer, one to the news- 
paper correspondents and one is the official copy that is 
considered by the committee to which it is referred. 

When we have our bill in shape, we ask our Represen- 
tative to introduce it, and he is quite sure to consent. It 
is the prerogative of the humblest or most foolish citizen 
to have a bill introduced, but, unless we convince our 
Representative of the advisability of the measure, he is 
apt to introduce it "by request." These simple words 
endorsed on a bill are its death warrant. The members 
argue, cogently enough, that if the sponsor of a bill is 
anxious to dissociate his personality from it there must 
be something wrong somewhere. 

(1) Const. Art. Ill, Sec. 1. 



20 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

If our bill is of a political nature, its fate, of course, 
will be determined by the political complexion of the 
Legislature, and no efforts that we or our Bepresentative 
can make will have much influence on the result. How- 
ever, let us imagine that the sponsor of our bill adopts it 
as his own, and that it is not of such a nature as to cause 
a division along party lines, and then let us watch its 
progress. 

' ' No bill shall be considered unless referred to a com- 
mittee, returned therefrom, and printed for the use of the 
members. ' ' 2 

Our bill being, as we have supposed, of a non-political 
character, the Speaker will probably refer it to whatever 
committee the title suggests. This may be any of the 
forty-one standing committees of the House, which vary 
considerably from one another in importance. Some of 
them are merely names, and serve no other purpose than 
to allow new members to publish the committee assign- 
ments to which their talents have entitled them. That 
their committees never meet need not be explained to the 
folks up home. The most powerful committee, and in 
a certain sense, the most important, is the Committee on 
Appropriations, concerning which more will be said 
when we are treating of the State's expenditures. The 
committee which deals with the widest range of questions 
and which is most important except from the standpoint 
of money, is the Committee on Judiciary General. This 
is the lawyers ' committee, and its membership is entirely 
recruited from members of the bar. To it come all ques- 
tions of a technically legal nature, and many others upon 
which the opinion of a group of especially trained men 
is desired. Its chairman is apt to be floor leader for the 
majority party. The Committee on Judiciary Special 
has of late years come to be of very much the same nature 
as the Judiciary General. Its membership is also com- 

(2) Const. Art. Ill, Sec. 2. 



THE LEGISLATURE AT WORK. 21 

posed of lawyers, and it performs much the same work. 
In times past, however, it had the reputation of being the 
place where the Speaker sent bills he desired suppressed. 
Hence its popular name of "Pickle Committee." An- 
other important committee is that on Municipal Corpora- 
tions, to which comes a constant stream of bills relating 
to the various municipalities of the State. Other com- 
mittees are important but not so busy, though on oc- 
casions they are worked very hard, as for instance, the 
Committee on Education when it was considering the 
School Code, or the Committee on Agriculture when 
someone has introduced a bill permitting oleomargarine 
manufacturers to employ artificial color. 

So our bill has been almost automatically "referred 
to a committee." But "returned therefrom" — ah! that 
is a different matter. In committee is about the only 
place where bills get any thoughtful consideration, and, 
it must frankly be confessed, they get little enough there. 
This is due partly to the fact that many members, on ac- 
count of their limited outlook, are not to be expected to 
be in a position to consider matters beyond the particular 
line in which they have been trained; j and partly to con- 
flicting interest in other things, for a baseball game has 
been known to render a quorum impossible. However, 
neither of these reasons would be serious were it not for 
one much deeper, the fact that the people, in their lust 
for new law, have overloaded their law machine. 

To prepare himself to appreciate this point, let the 
reader open the last volume of laws and pick out a statute 
upon a subject not familiar to him. Then let him suppose 
himself in the position of a committeeman who is called 
upon to consider that law while still only a bill. First 
let him ascertain the state of the present law on the 
subject, then let him ascertain how the bill would modify 
the law, and lastly whether such modification is desir- 
able or not. If the reader will do this as carefully 



22 STATE GOVEKXMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

as he thinks it ought to be done before the change is en- 
forced on the whole State, he will be in a position to 
realize the meaning of the fact that at the session of 1917 
there were introduced into the Legislature 2549 bills. 3 
No possible human industry could be fair to them all. 
Still, much could be done if there were but opportunity 
to get at it. But consider a typical day's work. The 
Legislator gets up as early as he can after being hard 
at work till late the night before. He is at his desk, we 
will say, at nine o'clock. Not a desk in a quiet office, 
but out in the open on the floor of the House, unpro- 
tected from the attentions of fellow members, newspaper 
correspondents and constituents. His mail box is bulg- 
ing. Were he a Congressman his government-paid clerk 
would have had his letters opened, classified, the easy 
ones answered, and the information collected for answer- 
ing the others. Not so with the Legislator. He opens 
them all with his own hand and answers them all, some 
on the spot with pen and ink, and those that can wait, he 
defers till his return home. On his desk lies the calendar 
of the bills that will be voted on during the day. On 
each he must vote aye or no. Middle ground is denied 
him. And for each aye or no he must stand ready to ex- 
plain at any future time. Before him also lies the text 
of the bills, piled up in a mountain of print. Prudence 
would dictate that, at least, he should read them. But 
soon the short hour has sped and the gavel falls. Then, 
till half past twelve, the session is in full swing. Some 
little work he may do while the orators drone or the roll 
call patters, but only with a divided attention. His 
enemies must not catch him off his guard. Lunch is taken 
hurriedly, often with the work of the morning mulled over 
again, for the members frequently eat together and then 
always talk shop. At two o 'clock comes an hour of com- 

(3) 1603 in the House and 946 in the Senate. Information 

furnished by the Legislative Reference Bureau. 



THE LEGISLATURE AT WORK. 23 

mittee meetings. Then a session of the House till 5.30 
or 6.00. A pause for dinner and an evening's work either 
in committee or, towards the close of the session, in the 
House itself. 

Perhaps the members should take the bills home with 
them to study them Fridays and Saturdays. But who are 
the members? Not retired capitalists, but men of busi- 
ness or professional men, and at home they find a week J s 
correspondence piled up and a week's knotty points 
saved for the attention of the head of the house, or irri- 
tated clients whose matters have been postponed, or side- 
tracked patients whose maladies will not brook delay. To 
do a week's work in two days is hard enough of itself, but 
when enlivened with political conferences and delegations 
of constituents, it is certainly not conducive to the study 
of bills. The outstanding fact is : There is no quiet time 
when bills can be studied. 

But to return to our bill. It had been referred to 
committee, but not yet returned therefrom. We are very 
lucky if it has been referred to a committee of which its 
sponsor is a member, because then he can see that it 
gets attention. Neglect is as fatal to bills as to babies. 
If no one has any objection to the bill, it may be reported 
with a favorable recommendation very promptly. If the 
bill is of any importance, however, there is in all proba- 
bility some interest in the State that will object. This in- 
terest will get in touch with some member on the Commit- 
tee and gain his influence against the bill. Then prob- 
ably a hearing will be held and we and our opponents will 
be allowed to present arguments to the committee. Per- 
haps a subcommittee will be appointed to give closer at- 
tention to the bill. The enemies of the bill will try in 
every way possible to cause delay, hoping by obstructive 
tactics to keep the bill back till it fails of passage for 
pure want of time. In some sessions this is easier to 
achieve than in others, but in all sessions there is a ten- 



24 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

dency to dawdle at first, so that work gets into a fearful 
jam at the end and much is left undone. So our Kepre- 
sentative must be diligent. If it becomes evident that 
the committee is delaying the bill it may be necessary to 
introduce a resolution in the House to discharge the com- 
mittee from further consideration of the bill. This can- 
not be done until the committee has had the bill for ten 
days, and is a desperate remedy at best, for the com- 
mittee has a very sharp retort. It may return the bill 
with a negative recommendation, a treatment most del- 
eterious to a bill. 4 Therefore, diplomacy requires that 
we should get, if possible, a voluntary approval of the 
bill, and probably we shall get it, for few bills with strong 
backing are now killed in committee, though our patience 
may have occasioned the loss of precious time. 

So our bill has been "returned therefrom." Now it 
must be "printed for the use of the members." 

Whatever may be said against the actions of the 
Pennsylvania Legislature, it cannot be denied that the 
requirement of printing bills for the use of the members 
has been lived up to both in letter and in spirit. In this 
respect Pennsylvania, in its most unregenerate days, sur- 
passed Wisconsin, even after that State had become 
conscious of its "Idea." 5 Not only are the bills printed 
when returned from committee, but it has long been the 

(4) Until 1913 a negative recommendation was well nigh fatal, 
for the rales provided that a bill returned with a negative recom- 
mendation could not be considered by the House unless placed upon 
the calendar by a vote of one hundred and four members, enough to 
pass the bill finally. The purpose of the rales' revision of 1913 was 
to limit the power both of the speaker and committees over the 
action of the House itself, so it provided that the vote of sixty 
members is enough both to discharge a committee and to place a 
bill upon the calendar if returned with a negative recommendation. 
The present (1917) rule is that sixty votes will discharge a committee 
and a majority of those voting place a negative bill on the calendar. 

(5) cf. The Wisconsin Idea. pp. 194-195-196. The MacMillan 
Company, New York, 1912. 



THE LEGISLATURE AT WORK. 25 

regular practice of the House and occasionally of the 
Senate, to have them printed as soon as introduced. This 
is a most wholesome method of letting in the light on the 
doings of the Legislature. Also, the bills are reprinted 
when amended, and cannot be acted upon until re- 
printed. 6 Conference reports also, are printed. 

* i Every bill shall be read at length on three different 
days in each House. ' ' 7 This provision is observed in the 
spirit, however sadly shattered in the letter. The real 
purpose of the provision is to prevent undue haste and 
to insure that no bill can be passed in less than five days' 
time. This much is strictly adhered to, but no set of 
mortal men could endure to sit while the mass of legis- 
lation before the Houses was read word for word, at 
length. Occasionally, for filibustering purposes, just this 
is insisted upon. Toward the end of the session of 1909 
a filibuster was being conducted against the school code. 
This enormous bill, containing hundreds of sections, had 
to meet determined opposition to many of its provisions, 
and, merely for the purpose of delay, the opponents of 
the measure demanded that it be read word for word. 
The weary night dragged on. The weary clerks droned 
on, while a vigilant filibusterer sat at their feet and, with 
finger on page, followed the text to see that nothing was 
omitted. After a while the clerks collapsed entirely and 
volunteers from the members took up the work. Grad- 
ually the members drifted out, or went to sleep in their 
chairs. If a quorum remained, it is certain that less than 
a quorum was awake. At last it struck some original soul 
that the constitutional requirement would be satisfied if 
several read at once, beginning at different places. So a 
reading squad of ten was organized and all read simul- 
taneously. The scene that followed suggested a strike 

(6) Const. Art. Ill, Sec. 4. 

(7) Const. Art. Ill, Sec. 4. 



26 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

on the tower of Babel. The idea was, no doubt, unsound 
constitutionally, but practically it broke up the filibuster 
and saved the school code for the more dignified death of 
the Governor's axe. At the next session, however, a 
similar bill was passed and signed. 

Our bill, having been reported "as committed," or 
"as amended," is noAv upon the calendar of business of 
the House, under the heading, Bills on first reading. When 
that order is reached they are read (?) by the clerk and 
adopted by the House viva voce. That the bills shall be 
adopted on first reading without objection is the general 
practice. Very occasionally, an obnoxious bill will be 
attacked on first reading, though it is not considered good 
form to do so, because, as such an attack would be very 
unexpected, the friends of the bill would be taken off their 
guard. Sometimes the attack is made at this stage sim- 
ply to serve warning that the bill is so disliked that it 
will be attacked at every possible opportunity. If a 
real opposition does develop, the friends of the measure 
insist on a roll call and the same kind of a contest takes 
place as would normally occur at a later stage. In case 
the bill passed first reading, a similar fight would occur 
on each subsequent reading and this would tend to re- 
quire all forensic work to be in triplicate. This fact tends 
to restrict the attack on bills on first reading to rare in- 
stances. We may feel quite confident that our bill will 
pass first reading as a matter of mere routine. Then it 
finds its place on the calendar of bills on second reading. 
This stage is by no means a matter of routine. For any 
important bill it is a period of storm and stress, for it is 
the stage provided by the rules for the offering of amend- 
ments. Upon each bill the House ought, in accordance 
with its rules, to go into committee of the whole. In the 
committee of the whole the rules are relaxed and a more 
general and informal discussion is supposed to be possi- 
ble. In actual practice, however, there is little advantage 



THE LEGISLATURE AT WORK. 27 

in going into committee, so the Speaker's formula, "Will 
the House dispense with the Committee of the Whole — 
Dispensed with," has become, a matter of routine. At 
this crisis of the bill's career it is well that its outside 
friends should be near to counsel the sponsor, for by 
judicious concession on unessential points the bill may 
come through intact. Also, apparently harmless but actu- 
ally destructive amendments must be opposed with every 
weapon at command. 

If our bill comes through second reading, it takes its 
place upon the third reading calendar. Passing a bill 
on third reading is usually as much a matter of routine 
as passing it on first, but then comes final passage. Un- 
der the Constitution the yeas and nays must be taken. 
The lines of battle are drawn and the real test occurs. 

To pass a bill finally requires — not a majority of 
those present — but a majority of all the members 
whether present or not. If one more than half the House 
were present, a quorum would be present and the House 
could do business, but one member could veto every bill 
he wished. The effect of this provision is far reaching. 
While the attendance is, on the whole, very good, there 
are always some absentees and occasionally a consider- 
able number. Under the rule mentioned above, to be 
absent has all the practical effect of voting against every 
bill considered during the absence. Knowing this, mem- 
bers who really oppose bills, but who for some reason 
desire not to be recorded against them, refrain from vot- 
ing. The uninitiated may think this a neutral position, 
but the bill would not have been more injured had such 
a member voted directly against it. A bill will frequently 
have a far greater number of affirmative than negative 
votes, but still fail to reach the magic number of one hun- 
dred and four. 

While roll call is required on the final passage of a 
bill, it is frequently had at other stages and on other mat- 



28 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

ters. The different practice of State and nation in this 
regard is interesting. A comparison of the provisions 
relating to yea and nay voting in the Pennsylvania and 
United States Constitutions 8 reveals that it is much eas- 
ier to require a roll call in the State than in the nation, 
especially under the rule of the Pennsylvania House 
which enables two members to require a roll call on any 
question. This difference seems aptly fitted to the con- 
ditions under which the two bodies work. In Congress 
there is a tremendous amount of filibustering, and the 
roll call is one of the readiest instruments of such tac- 
tics. If a roll call could be ordered on any question by 
two members, it would be possible for a very small group 
to tie up the whole House for an indefinite period. In the 
Pennsylvania Legislature a filibuster is very rare. Even 
legitimate debate is received very impatiently, and the 
chief evil, in the way of procedure, is a tendency to jam 
through everything without due consideration. Conse- 
quently, the power of demanding roll calls is seldom 
abused. On the other hand, it is very valuable in making 
the members vote according to their representative opin- 
ions rather than according to their private opinions. A 
representative opinion is that which a member wishes his 
constituents to believe he entertains. Therefore, in 

(8) " . . . no bill shall become a law, unless on its final 
passage the vote be taken by yeas and nays, the names of the persons 
voting for and against the same be entered on the journal, and a 
majority of the members elected to each House be recorded thereon 
as voting in its favor." (P-enna. Const. Art. Ill, Sec. 4.) 

1 ' The yeas and nays of the members on any question shall, at the 
desire of any two of them, be entered on the Journals, and the mem- 
bers shall have the right to insert the reasons of their votes on the 
Journals." (Rule of the Penna. House No. 52.) 

"Each House shall keep' a Journal of its Proceedings, and from 
time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their 
Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the members 
of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of 
those present, be entered on the Journal." (U. S. Const. Sec. 5, Clause 
3.) 



THE LEGISLATURE AT WORK. 29 

any matter in which his action becomes a public record, 
he votes his representative opinion, but whenever he can 
influence legislative results without his action being re- 
corded, he is apt to act according to his private opinion. 
Many actions of the House are taken by means of a viva 
voce vote, where a record, of course, is impossible. 
Notably is this so in adopting amendments. An amend- 
ment, however, is often vital to the value of a bill, so in 
order to secure that members shall vote their represen- 
tative rather than their private opinions on vital amend- 
ments, it is frequently necessary to insist on a roll call. 
It is not at all unusual to hear a disabling amendment to 
a bill carried with an overwhelming shout, while on roll 
call the necessary majority to adopt it cannot be found. 

If our bill has achieved the necessary number of votes 
it is signed by the Speaker, in the presence of the House, 
as is required by the Constitution. 9 It is then messaged 
to the Senate where it is again referred to committee and 
must travel the same road as before. Some Senator must 
now be induced to interest himself in it, for the member 
who introduced it in the House can do little for it in the 
upper body. Senate committees are notoriously more 
tenacious of bills than are House committees, and the 
Senate's rules have not been liberalized for the purpose 
of making committees disgorge, as have those of the 
House. 

Should our bill finally pass in the Senate, it will be 
sent to the Governor, who makes it a law by signing it, 
or destroys it with his veto. A vetoed bill can only be 
resurrected by a two-thirds vote of both Houses, and in 
Pennsylvania the passing of a bill over a veto is a rare 
occurrence. 



(9) Const. Art. Ill, Sec. 9. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE LEGISLATURE AT PLAY. 



IF the boy is the father of the man, the man is some- 
times such a large chip off the old block as to be diffi- 
cult to distinguish from his progenitor. Perhaps it 
is the suggestion of the schoolroom surrounding the Rep- 
resentative on every side that carries him irresistibly back 
to the blithe days of boyhood. There he sits at a little 
desk, with pencils and pens and erasers and tablets under 
the lid, and keeps order for long hours, while up above 
sits the Speaker, like a stern teacher, watching conduct 
with an eagle eye. 

At first the new dignity of being a part of the govern- 
ment of a mighty commonwealth sits heavy on the mem- 
ber, and keeps him an adult. But as the session drags 
on and he becomes more familiar with the Speaker and the 
Sergeant-at-Arms, the boy begins to crop out. Usually 
the first symptoms appear with the opening of the base- 
ball season in the Spring. When the great windows of 
the hall of the House stand open, and the squirrels frisk 
on the lawns of Capitol Hill, then the quorum will dimin- 
ish and the relative merits of the Lancaster and Harris- 
burg teams rank with the fate of the oleo bill. 

About this time there is apt to come to final passage 
some bill concerning dogs, relative perhaps to their tax- 
ation, muzzling, protection, what not. The clerk calls the 
roll. Instead of the stentorian "aye" or "no," there 
comes a succession of barks, snarls, yaps and grunts. 
Dog bills always seem to excite the risibilities of the 
House. In the following excerpt from the Record, which 
will serve to give some idea of legislative pleasantry, the 
sympathetic reader will realize that much is lost through 
reduction to cold print. 
30 



THE LEGISLATURE AT PLAY. 31 

There was under discussion "An act to provide for 
the registration, taxation and identification of dogs, pre- 
scribing penalties for its violation and means for its en- 
forcement, and appropriating the money raised by such 
taxation. ' ' 

Mr. Cochrane : On the second page of the 

the bill in line 18, the provision is that the dog shall wear a 
metallic tag which shall be stamped or engraved with the licensed 
number in figures. Now, suppose the dog should get into a fight 
and the other dog should either tear it off or swallow it, then 
this dog would be liable to the fine prescribed by this bill. 

Mr. Young: Mr. Speaker. 

The Speaker : The gentleman from Clinton, Mr. Young. 

Mr. Young: Mr. Speaker, I desire to interrogate the gentle- 
man from Armstrong, Mr. Cochrane. 

The Speaker: The gentleman from Clinton, Mr. Young, de- 
sires to interrogate the gentleman from Armstrong, Mr. Cochrane. 
Will the gentleman permit himself to be interrogated? 

Mr. Cochrane: Mr. Speaker, certainly. 

Mr. Young: Mr. Speaker, did I understand the gentleman 
from Armstrong to say that he said this upon his scientific 
knowledge of dogs? 

Mr. Cochrane: Mr. Speaker, did I understand the gentleman 
to say on my scientific knowledge of dogs? 

Mr. Young: Mr. Speaker, I will change the question. Do I 
understand that where a dog commits suicide can you make it 
support the child? (Laughter.) 

Mr. Blakslee: Mr. Speaker. 

The Speaker: The gentleman from Carbon, Mr. Blakslee. 

Mr. Blakslee: Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to 
offer the following amendment. 

The Speaker: The gentleman from Armstrong has the floor. 

Mr. Cochrane : Mr. Speaker, in section six of this bill it 
further provides that it is the duty of the constable of each town- 
ship, ward, precinct, borough and city in this Commonwealth to 
capture and destroy in a humane manner and properly dispose 
of any dog not wearing the tag provided for in this act, and 
upon making proof under oath to the satisfaction of the county 
commissioners he is to receive the sum of fifty cents. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I raise the constitutionality objection to 
this bill, That this is a scalp law and not a dog law. As set 
forth in section six of this bill and in the eighth section of the 
bill, it also provides for the payment of claims for horses, mules, 
cattle and swine bitten by a mad dog. Now, it says nothing at 
all about children. I presume that the dog in this bill can make 



32 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

an attack upon the children and not be required to pay for any 
bites that he may give, but he shall pay for bites of horses, mules, 
cattle and swine. (Cries of aye, aye, kiyi.) 

Mr. Speaker, I think there is some merit in this bill, but I 
believe we had better pass it up to the next session. 

Mr. Blakslee: Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to 
insert the following amendment. 

The amendment was read by the clerk as follows: — 

Amend section one by adding at the end of the section 

the following: "That each dog shall have two white lights 

displayed in front and shall have a red light in the rear that 

the license may be illuminated by night." 
(Prolonged laughter and applause.) 

The Speaker: The amendment is not germane. (Laughter.) 

Mr. Marvin: Mr. Speaker. 

The Speaker: The gentleman from Pike, Mr. Marvin. 

Mr. Marvin: Mr. Speaker, I was about to offer an amend- 
ment to the amendment of the gentleman from Carbon specify- 
ing that the speed should be regulated at ten miles an hour on 
public highways. 

There is another thing that I don't like in this bill. This 
bill provides that the fine shall go to the wrong place; it seems 
to me that the fine should not be over the value of the dog— fifty 
cents for each dog. (Laughter.) 

Mr. Minehart: Mr. Speaker. 

The Speaker: The gentleman from Franklin, Mr. Minehart. 

Mr. Minehart : Mr. Speaker, now that we have considered 
this matter very seriously and in a very just manner, I move 
that this bill be continued for a period of forty days. (Laughter.) 

Mr. Kuser: Mr. Speaker. 

The Speaker: The gentleman from Berks, Mr. Kuser. 

Mr. Kuser: Mr. Speaker, I second the motion. 

Mr. Habgood: Mr. Speaker. 

The Speaker: The gentleman from McKean, Mir. Habgood. 

Mr. Habgood : Mr. Speaker, I move to amend that motion 
that this bill be postponed until dog days. 

Mr. Minehart: Mr. Speaker, I accept that amendment, as I 
think it is a good one. (Laughter.) 

Mr. Garner: Mr. Speaker. 

The Speaker: The gentleman from Schuylkill, Mr. Garner. 

Mr. Garner: Mr. Speaker, I move to amend that motion to 
say that it be committed to the Committee on Fish and Game. 
(Prolonged laughter.) 

The Speaker: Is that motion seconded? It does not seem 
to be seconded. 1 



(1) Legislative Record, Session 1907, Vol. II, p. 2525. 



THE LEGISLATUEE AT PLAY. 33 

When the vote was taken, there were 60 "aye" yelps 
and 58 "no" yelps, bnt as the necessary 104 votes were 
not secured, the bill failed. However, a very similar bill 
did pass the same session. 2 

On the whole, the play instinct is kept pretty well 
under until the work of legislation is nearly done. Final- 
ly the pressure rises too high, and there is an explosion. 

The session preceding the day of final adjournment 
always extends throughout the night. This is not because 
the members especially enjoy working all night, but be- 
cause a universal procrastination always secures them a 
heavy calendar of work at the last moment. If the mere 
passage of bills were all that required to be done the calen- 
dar might be cleared by rapid roll calls. But there are 
always reports from the committees appointed to harmon- 
ize the differences between the Senate and the House, 
and these reports must be printed ; the general appropri- 
ation bill is always retained till the closing hours in order 
that it may include provision for all the expenses author- 
ized by the latest legislation; and there are a host of 
details which do not engage the attention of the whole 
House but which must be disposed of before the House 
can adjourn. Although the Senate is a much more expe- 
ditious body, it, too, must watch the night out with the 
House. 



(2) Act June 1st, 1907, P. L. 362. This act was repealed by Act 
July 11, 1917, P. L. , which codified the dog law. This latter 

act goes into effect January 15th, 1918, and should be carefully 
studied by all dog owners, since under it they will have serious re- 
sponsibilities. For instance See. 24 provides, "The owner or keeper 
of every dog shall at all times, between sunset and sunrise of each 
day, (sic) keep such dog — either (a) confined within an enclosure 
from which it cannot escape, or (b) firmly secured by means of a 
collar and chain or other device so that it cannot stray beyond the 
premises on which it is secured, or (c) under the reasonable control 
of some person, or when engaged in lawful hunting accompanied by 
an owner or handler." Failing to comply with the provisions of 
this act is a misdemeanor punishable by fine or imprisonment. 
3 



34 STATE GOVEENMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

Let us attend in imagination a typical session of the 
House on the day before final adjournment. It opens 
much as usual. The members seem a little restless, but 
any disorder is sternly repressed by the Speaker, and 
business hurries on. Towards the end of the day, or 
perhaps early in the evening, the Speaker has about 
reached the limit of his control. Suddenly, as out of 
nowhere, a paper missile flies, only to fall harmless in the 
aisle. Bang! Down comes the gavel, and the Speaker 
exhorts the members to realize that serious work remains 
to be done, only to gaze helplessly at the full text of some 
weighty code (that handiest of legislative weapons) sail 
with fluttering pages from some rear seat to be arrested 
in its flight by the nape of a representative neck. Then 
for a while chaos is unloosed. The temptation of the 
arsenal of useless paper is too great, and a snowstorm 
bursts. Sheets crumpled into balls satisfy some, but 
most lethal is a fat bill that curves and twists with the 
agility of a boomerang. Bill files are useful as entrench- 
ments behind which the more timid crouch until the storm 
is past. Now for the first time the new members realize 
the advantage of the custom which relegates them to 
seats in the rear. After a while the storm slackens, owing 
to the exhaustion of the ammunition of the more ag- 
gressive, and only an occasional discharge betokens that 
the siege is still maintained. The aisles are now inches 
deep in loose paper, and the passerby wades to the ankle 
in'bills. All the while business proceeds, for no one would 
think of stopping just because of a few cut-ups. Soon 
communication with the base seems to have been restored 
and reserve ammunition brought up, for large bags of 
confetti are generously handed around, and the business 
of the House continues amid a gentle fall of parti-colored 
snow. 

By midnight the calendar is cleared, but the work is 
by no means over. Then the House recesses for an hour 



THE LEGISLATURE AT PLAY. 35 

to discuss the hospitality of the Chief Clerk, in the sub- 
terranean caverns of the Capitol basement with its squat 
columns reminiscent of the temple scenes in Aida. 

Eeturning refreshed, the members reassemble only 
to find that there is little business before them. 

Satan finds some mischief still 
For idle hands to do. 

The Speaker vacates the chair and surrenders the 
gavel, not to the best parliamentarian, but the best stunt 
director, and the House resolves itself into a Committee 
of the Whole for the purpose of jollification, resembling 
nothing so much as a small town vaudeville theatre on 
amateur night. Those who think they can sing are un- 
leashed. Strange what hallucinations some people 
cherish ! If one who is suspected of thinking he can sing- 
seems coy when invited and shows a disposition to sneak 
out the back way, it is simple enough to have him grab- 
bed by four husky members from the coal regions, one 
to each limb, and carried headforemost to the rostrum. 

Already the singers of the House have drifted to- 
gether naturally and an extemporized glee club is soon 
in full swing. Some of the voices are evidently not 
what -once they were, and the repertoire is limited to the 
oldest and most favorite of the old favorites, but the 
singing is hearty, being done for pure enjoyment, and all 
the members join lustily in the chorus. 

Down in front of the clerks' desk something is evi- 
dently going on, and the members crowd around to see. 
A great banner, or chart printed on cloth, is produced. 
At first sight the reading matter is quite unintelligible, 
but when near enough for its large type to be visible it 
is seen to be a song, with, a number of pictures of ob- 
jects and the notes for the chorus, all in correct Penn- 
sylvania Dutch. One member solemnly intones the open- 
ing words, "1st das nicht eine Sohnitzelbank f ' ' and from 



36 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

his coadjutor comes the antiphonal response, " Ja das ist 
eine Schnitzelbank," and from those who can read the 
words comes the stirring chorus, "Ei du schoene, ei du 
schoene, ei du schoene schnitzelbank. " Again, the inter- 
locutor intones, this time with reference to "Ein Kurz 
und Lang," and again comes the asseverative response. 
Then they couple the first and second name, — house that 
Jack built style, — and the augmented crowd, now learn- 
ing the chorus, voices it with deep throated enjoyment. 
So the chant grows, each time extended by the addition 
of a name, and each chorus deepened by additional voices 
until the last thunderous " schnitzelbank" reverberates 
through the whole Capitol and dies away in answering 
echoes in the great dome. 3 

Bang! The gavel falls, and the members look up to 
note that the stunt speaker has given way to the real 
Speaker. All subside into their seats and the rollicking 
mob becomes instantly the grave legislative assembly. 
Some conference report has come in and is disposed of, 
some Senate amendments to House bills are concurred in, 
and again the House finds itself with nothing to do, but 
unable to adjourn. The Speaker as before leaves the 
chair to a presiding officer who has no reputation for dig- 
nity to maintain, and the fun starts anew. Paper flies, 
confetti floats. Burlesque speeches, aptly caricaturing 
the more striking orators of the House, are spouted. In 
the midst of all this a grizzled veteran in the old blue 
uniform walks in. He had been a member of the House 
a generation ago, and now, on his way to Gettysburg, he 
has tarried to fight again his political battles. His story 
quickly reaches the Speaker, and the old soldier is called 
to the rostrum, where he receives an ovation from the 
members, and delivers some plain and direct words of 

(3) This song" is well known in the Pennsylvania German region, 
but is hard to obtain elsewhere. The author has a copy published by 
the Broadway Publishing Co., 287 Broadway, Buffalo, X. Y. 



THE LEGISLATUKE AT PLAY. 37 

patriotism. Then someone seizes the American flag that 
stands behind the Speaker 's desk and, gently forcing the 
veteran to lead the procession with Old Glory, the whole 
House falls in and marches up and down the aisles sing- 
ing the Star Spangled Banner. The crowded gallery 
and side aisles join in, and the Speaker conducts with his 
gavel. This over, the uproar begins anew. From some 
masked battery armed with one squirt gun, a thin stream 
runs its parabolic course and irrigates the tonsured pate 
of an elderly and highly respectable Eepresentative. 
Then another victim feels, but fails to locate, the hidden 
artillerist. Finally one espies the mischief maker and, 
quietly slipping out, returns with a 42 centimeter bucket 
charged to the muzzle. The superior weight of metal is 
decisive. 

Clearly things are going too far, and it is time for 
something more orderly. The distribution of appropri- 
ate presents begins. A handsome and thoroughly practi- 
cable baby coach is presented to a member who has had 
recent occasion for one. To a party whip is presented a 
real lash to make his work effective. A member conspicu- 
ous for hunting out legislative snakes is given a pop gun 
to arm himself in his quest. To a white haired but vig- 
orous minister (the House is never without one or more 
ministers in its membership), who had been strong in his 
championship of bills for the prevention of vice, is given 
a red lantern and a piece or two of filmy apparel. A diffi- 
cult task the old preacher faces as he rises to reply to 
the speech of presentation amid the expectant silence of 
the members. For a few moments he speaks lightly, not 
to break too suddenly the levity of the occasion, but grad- 
ually the sentiments he utters begin to rise, till, sustained 
by the full rush of his oratory, they soar aloft. The 
breathless listeners hear a sermon, powerful, brief, such 
as they have seldom heard before. 

In chastened mood the House is ready again for seri- 



38 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

ous business. As this is transacted it grows very late. 
Members drift out. Some drop their heads on the desk 
before them and sleep, oblivious of the brilliant lights 
and constant sound. The great casement windows of the 
House, flung wide to welcome the summer air, are black 
with the satin texture of the night. But look again. Into 
the blackness has crept a trace of deepest blue, blue too 
deep to have a name. Gradually, imperceptibly, but inex- 
orably the blue lightens, till at the final fall of the gavel, 
we look out at the azure heavens and the new day is at 
hand. No thought of bed now. A brisk walk over the 
Susquehanna on the long bridge, a cold bath and a hearty 
breakfast renew the bodily forces for the closing scenes. 

What a change ! A few hours ago the aisles were deep 
in strewn papers, the desks covered with bill files in all 
stages of disintegration, giving a white, almost snow- 
covered look to the room. Now all is serene, clear, and 
of that deep red color familiar when the House first met, 
but forgotten as the bill files swelled, and somehow the 
verse about the man clothed and in his right mind per- 
sistently recurs. 

A few belated pieces of business are to be attended to, 
but the real purpose of this session is to say farewell. 
Notwithstanding the clash of party and personality that 
has taken place throughout the session, the closing day 
brings with it the pang of parting. There is in the air 
that shade of melancholy that pervades a college campus 
on commencement day, and also something of the same 
gala occasion. By long custom the sentiments of the 
House are crystallized into handsome presents for the 
chief officers. These are displayed before the rostrum, 
and the rich silver, cut glass and oriental rugs suggest 
the ground floor of a great department store. The 
Speaker, all the clerks and even the page boys are remem- 
bered, and often the chairmen of the more important com- 
mittees. "With each gift, of course, goes a presentation 



THE LEGISLATUEE AT PLAY. 39 

speech. How can it all be done before twelve o 'clock, that 
inexorable hour set for final adjournment? Ask the clock. 
That staid timepiece that so calmly has measured off the 
hours throughout the session now seems possessed. Its 
hands, like Sisyphus, toil upward, only to slip back. 
Again and again they climb, till, when all the talk is over, 
they attain the goal and the Speaker announces, "The 
House stands adjourned sine die." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE LEGISLATURE SPENDING MONEY. 

THE following incident, coming under the observa- 
tion of the author, may serve as an introduction 
to a description of the methods of the Legislature 
in making appropriations : 

The Senate was in session, though almost the only 
evidence of that fact was the group of officials in their 
places, for the floor was bare of senators, save two, and 
these were deeply immersed in their newspapers. A low 
droning pervaded the atmosphere, which, when attended 
to, proved to be the voice of the reading clerk continu- 
ously calling the roll. At regular intervals the presid- 
ing officer would anounce that a bill had passed finally. 
At the rear of the room stood a group of spectators, 
members of the House, newspaper men and visitors. 
Whether the farce of the procedure struck them simul- 
taneously, or whether some joke was sprung, it is hard 
to say, but suddenly a general laugh broke forth. DoAvn 
came the gavel of the presiding officer, and he called 
them to order with the remark, "The gentlemen in the 
rear of the room must not make so much noise, the Sena- 
tors cannot hear their names being called." This was 
the Senate of Pennsylvania passing appropriation bills. 

In the House a scene of similar import might be fre- 
quently witnessed. Decorously enough the first bill or 
two passes. Then the clerk, who has the names per- 
fectly by rote, spins them off till each member must wing 
his name on the fly. The pace grows too furious for any 
response, and the ayes come snapping from all parts of 
the room without much connection with the names called. 
Soon the roll miraculously shortens. Members have 
40 



THE LEGISLATURE SPENDING MONEY. 41 

ceased to attempt to hear or answer to their names, but 
the more active of them shout ' ' aye ' ' just to keep things 
moving. Occasionally a member musically inclined will 
sustain a long drawn aye and others joining in third, fifth 
and octave produce a chord as from a great organ. As 
the weary grind proceeds, less and less formality is ob- 
served. At length, no more than this, — the bill is an- 
nounced, the clerk starts the roll, and immediately a 
chorus of ayes brings the procedure to a close. In each 
case, when the Speaker announces the vote, it always 
appears that more than two-thirds of the members, and 
frequently almost the total number, have voted. 

At the first impulse we are tempted to denounce the 
whole proceeding as a colossal fraud, but it is not fraud, 
it is a species of unanimous consent. Both the Senate 
and the House in the cases mentioned are saving them- 
selves the intolerable iteration resulting from a literal ob- 
servance of the constitutional routine in every case. If 
a member should rise and announce that he intends to 
oppose a bill, the House or Senate would relapse into its 
accustomed order and the roll call would proceed with 
accuracy. 

Nevertheless this unanimity itself is a matter of con- 
siderable interest to the critical observer. Since in all 
other walks of life the distribution of large sums of 
money, especially among those who have not worked for 
it, is the cause of so many bickerings and heartburnings, 
so much strife and litigation, how can it be that the Legis- 
lature of Pennsylvania can distribute $10,000,000 in a 
day without enough difference of opinion to make it 
necessary to call the roll? 

To explain this, it is necessary that we should de- 
scribe an institution peculiar to a small group of States 
of which Pennsylvania is the most conspicuous, viz., 
State appropriation to privately managed charity. 1 The 

(1) "Twenty-two states make no appropriation whatever to 



-4-2 STATE .GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

magnitude of the question can be comprehended when 
it is learned that the Pennsylvania Legislature of 1917 
appropriated -$6,670,050 (reduced by the Governor to 
$6,266,300) to charitable institutions, the management of 
which is not in its own hands. The private charitable in- 
stitutions which were the recipients of this bounty num- 
bered 282. 2 That there should be such a horde of appli- 
cants for State bounty, very few of whom really could 
hope that all their wants would be satisfied, would seem 
to insure trouble in distributing the funds available 
rather than the strange unanimity of which we have al- 
ready spoken. Therefore it is necessary that we should 
give particular attention to the system of State appro- 
priation to private charities and trace out its results 
widely ramifying through the whole structure of legis- 
lation. 

The workings of this system will be more vividly ap- 
prehended if we accompany a newly elected member 
through the experiences which give him his first insight 
into it. Shortly after his election he will be waited 
upon by a delegation from the Board of the Hospital 
or Home in his district, who will request him to introduce 
a bill making them their usual appropriation. Know- 
ing the worthiness of the institution and the good which 
it is doing in the community, the newly elected member 
is pleased to acquiesce, and gladly promises to do what 
in him lies to aid the passage of the appropriation. Con- 
sequently he promptly introduces the bill and finds him- 
self in plenty of company, for at least 350 other bills of 
the same general nature have been introduced. The 

privately managed charities, fifteen make such appropriation sparingly 
and nine place no apparent restriction on their grants." State Money 
and Privately Managed Charities— A chapter^ from Experience, by 
Alexander Fleisher, The Survey, October 31, 1914. 

(2) The figures given in this chapter have been compiled by the 
Public Charities Association of Pennsylvania, Empire Bldg.. Philadel- 
phia. 



THE LEGISLATIVE SPENDING MONEY. 



43 



number is significant, being larger than the total num- 
ber of Senators and Representatives, so that there is on 
the average more than one institution depending on each 
member of the House or Senate. The various appro- 
priation bills are referred to the appropriation commit- 
tee and when safely gathered there the system begins its 
work. 

Some sharp issue in the House arises. The hench- 
men vote as they are told, but the balance of power does 
not lie with them. The votes of the men of personal in- 
tegrity and standing in their communities, are needed to 
make up the majority. No doubt they will vote as they 
think right, but to know what is right is the difficulty. 
Someone has whispered in their ear the fatal spell, ' i You 
must go along if you want to get anything,' ' and now 
they begin to understand what it means. The appropri- 
ation bill for which they are responsible, is not yet out 
of committee. The men who are the sponsors for the bill 
creating the issue in question are powerful members of 
the appropriation committee, and it would be dangerous 
to antagonize them. The newcomer may be smart enough 
to take the hint, but if not, he will soon be told coldly 
and frankly that it is useless for him to expect that ap- 
propriations will be made for institutions in his district 
unless he goes along with the powers which are able to 
give or withhold. And so arises a sharp conflict in his 
soul. He thinks of the disaster that would attend the 
withholding of the needed money, of the sufferers in the 
hospital at home who would have nowhere to go should 
charity fail, and yet conscience forbids to vote for the 
wrong. Oh, the diabolical refinement of the scheme 
which sets the tenderest sympathies at war with con- 
science! At first the sympathies are apt to pre- 
vail, for there are salves for the conscience. 
"When my appropriation has been passed, then 
I can vote more independently. ' ' Poor deluded mortal, 



44 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

you do not yet know the rules of the House, ' ' No bill ap- 
propriating money for charitable or benevolent purposes 
will be considered further than second reading until after 
the general appropriation bill shall have been reported 
from committee." Gro study the history of former ses- 
sions and learn that months after the opening day the 
general appropriation bill is still in committee. When 
once solicitude for your appropriation has mastered your 
conduct, you must sit the session through like Damocles, 
the sword of fear ever swinging over your head. 

In his bewilderment the new member turns for advice 
to the men in his community to whom he has been accus- 
tomed to look up as leaders in good work, — leaders in 
good work, and consequently directors of the institution 
which needs the money. The dilemma puzzles them, too, 
but the difficulty about voting right does not seem so 
acute. They are not members of the Legislature and 
have not taken oath of office, while their close knowledge 
of the needs of their institution makes that branch of the 
question loom very large. They would not advise the 
member to vote against his conscience, certainly not, but 
we should not be surprised to hear them enlarge on the 
propriety of not being quixotic or idealistic, to say that 
this is a practical world, that a man must give and take, 
etc, and to employ all those various methods which a 
man uses to make himself more comfortable when doing 
what he knows he ought not to do. 

Seldom is the process as explicit as portrayed above, 
but it is always as real. Whenever there ought to be an 
outcry all over the State against iniquity in high places, 
it is frequently the leaders in benevolence who are heard 
to explain that they cannot have anything to do with 
politics because the institutions of which they are direc- 
tors simply could not exist without the State appropria- 
tion. We have shuddered to read how in some old Euro- 
pean War soldiers captured a citadel by covering their 



THE LEGISLATUEE SPENDING MONEY. 45 

advance with the women and children of the defenders. 
Such villainy can hardly be believed, yet at this day we 
live in a State where regularly the sick and the destitute, 
the insane and the orphan are marched in the van of the 
army that would control the State. 3 

(3) A strikiDg illustration of the way charitable appropriations 
are manipulated for political purposes is tbe fate in the session of 
1913 of the institutions serving especially the colored people. An 
appropriation of $75,000. was made for the celebration of the fiftieth 
anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. It was charged at 
the time the appropriation was made, and subsequent events tended to 
prove that the chief purpose of this appropriation was to provide a 
fund to enhance the importance of certain negro Republican Organiza- 
tion politicians who had its immediate disbursement in charge. The 
money was obtained by depriving legitimate negro charities of what 
they had a right to expect. The evidence of this can be clearly pre- 
sented. 

In 1911 there was appropriated to negro charities the sum of 
$116,400. In 1913, the year in which $75,000. was given to the Cele- 
bration, there was appropriated but $75,900., a loss of $40,500. to 
the charities concerned. Detailed schedule is appended. 

APPROPRIATIONS TO COLORED CHARITIES, I Oil. 

Coleman Home for colored Boys $ 2,000.00 

Agricultural and Mechanical School for colored boys 

and girls at Jumonville 10,000.00 

Aged colored women's home, Williamsport 2,000.00 

Industrial Home for colored working girls 2,000.00 

Avery College 10,000.00 

Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School 20,000.00 

Colored Women's Relief Association of Western Penn- 
sylvania 1,000.00 

Frederick Douglas Memorial Hospital 30,000.00 

Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Women, Pittsburgh. 4,000.00 

Institution for Colored Youths, Cheney 10,000.00 

Colored Day Nursery, Harrisburg 400.00 

Berean College 15,000.00 

Mercy Hospital, Philadelphia 10,000.00 



$116,400.00 

APPROPRIATIONS TO COLORED CHARITIES, I913. 

C leman Home for colored Boys $ 2,000.00 

Agricultural and Mechanical School for colored Boys 
and Girls at Jumonville 



46 STATE GOVEENMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

Another consideration which disturbs the new mem- 
ber is the fact that his value as a Representative is large- 
ly estimated by the people of his district on the basis 
of the amount of State money he is able to bring home 
with him. This is partly justified on the theory that the 
strongest lions will take the biggest piece of the prey, 
and that a man can have little influence in other matters 
who is not able to get a good appropriation for his own 
home hospital. The use of such a basis of estimate is 
also due in a large degree to the fact that money is very 
concrete and definite, while activity in general legisla- 
tion is indefinite and its value always a matter of opin- 
ion. Cash is a thing to be seen by everyone and its de- 
sirability is universally recognized, but the best work of 
the legislator is frequently done in the library and is 
seldom recognized by the public. 

When the appropriation bills have rested in committee 
throughout the session, and their usefulness as a club to 
control the votes of the members has been nearly ex- 
Aged colored Women 's Home, Williamsport 3,000.00 

Industrial Home for colored Working Girls 2,000.00 

Avery College 

Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School 20,000.00 

Colored Women's Belief Association of Western Penn- 
sylvania 1,000.00 

Frederick Douglas Memorial Hospital 20,000.00 

Home for Aged and Infirm Colored women, Pittsburgh. 4,500.00 

Institution for Colored Youth, Cheney 10,000.00 

Colored Day Nursery, Harrisburg 400.00 

Berean College 

Home for Colored Children, Allegheny 3,000.00 

Mercy Hospital, Philadelphia 10,000.00 

$75,900.00 

A comparison of the above will demonstrate that the chief contri- 
butors to the " cinch" of the Seventh Ward colored politicals were 
the school at Jumonville, Avery College, Frederick Douglas Hospital 
and Berean College. 'The rest was contributed by white charities 
which the Governor w T as compelled to cut in order to sign the "Cel^ 
ebration" bill. . . 



THE LEGISLATUKE SPENDING MONEY. 47 

hausted, they come out all together, that is to say, those 
of them that have survived the scrutiny of the commit- 
tee, and take their place upon the calendar in a solid 
block. Each member has a stake in that calendar. Let 
him but tread upon the toes of some other member and 
oppose the passage of a bill in which that member is in- 
terested, and the retort is obvious. The other member 
and as many friends as he can control simply vote against 
the appropriation bill of the objecting member. As a 
result there is little opposition to the appropriation bills 
on the floor of the House. Another reason for the unan- 
imity mentioned is that it is so much easier to shift all 
the responsibility on the appropriation committee and 
so much more safe, that the practice has become well nigh 
universal, and when once it has been determined to fol- 
low implicitly the recommendation of the committee on 
appropriations, the passage of each of the hundreds of 
appropriation bills with all the formality necessary in 
the passage of contested legislation, becomes a nuisance 
and soon degenerates into the legislative farce which has 
been described. 

The use of the appropriation to privately managed 
charities as a weapon for the destruction of the inde- 
pendence of the Legislature is such a blazing evil that in 
the face of it some difficulty must be experienced in main- 
taining a sufficiently judicial point of view to make a fair 
examination of its other features. Nevertheless, it has 
other features which merit careful examination. Not 
only does the charitable appropriation shackle the Legis- 
lature and muzzle the best citizenship of the State, but it 
reacts against the best interests of the charities them- 
selves. There has been a steady progress of the educa- 
tion of the benevolent citizens of the State to consider 
the State as the normal source of supply for established 
charities, and hence private gifts are either being less- 
ened in amount or directed into other channels and the 



48 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

managers are being constantly forced into the dilemma 
of either increasing their dependence upon the State or 
closing their institutions. Yet so little is it considered 
a mark of honor and approval to receive assistance from 
the State that many of our finest charitable institutions 
resolutely refuse any appropriation to be made to them, 
although to receive the money they would have little to 
do but to ask. 4 

On account of the striking collateral evils of the ap- 
propriation of State money to privately managed chari- 
ties, the fact is apt to be overlooked that the State does 
this appropriation very badly. That it should be done 
badly is inherent in the way in which it is done. The 
fair distribution of more than $6,000,000 among nearly 
300 institutions, none of which can get all that it feels 
entitled to, is not a task to be undertaken lightly, and yet 
the appropriation committee does it largely on the basis 
of their own knowledge gained by the journeys of sub- 
committees throughout the State during the session of 
the Legislature. Anyone who has ever had to do with 
the management of a hospital will realize that its needs 
and opportunities for service are not to be comprehended 
by a single walk through its wards and a survey of its 
statistics. No doubt the appropriation committee does 
gather some information from these journeys. Never- 
theless, these visits of inspection by the appropriation 

(4) The Pennsylvania Society to Protect Children from Cruelty, 
one of the State's standard privately managed charities, in 1914 form- 
ally voted not to apply for State aid. In their letter to the Secretary 
of the State Board of Charities, announcing this decision, appears 
the following paragraph: 

"The whole system seems to us wasteful, inefficient and 

corrupting, and we have, therefore, decided not to participate 

in it any longer. ' ' 

The whole letter, together with interviews with a number of 
people whose positions enable them to understand the situation, ap- 
pears in the Philadelphia North American of Sunday, December 
6th, 1914. 



THE LEGISLATURE SPENDING MONEY. 49 

committee are a real misfortune to the State. If they 
were but willing to admit that the task of judging the 
merits of all the charities of the State during a few brief 
months, which months were also to be devoted to the dis- 
tribution of the. total revenue of the State, was quite 
beyond the powers of any set of mortals, even of an 
appropriation committee, they might then be willing to 
take their information from an expert body always at 
work upon the problem. The State is not without ma- 
chinery for the gathering of detailed information about 
all its charitable institutions, State as well as privately 
managed. The State Board of Charities was organized 
for this very purpose. The State Board of Charities is 
composed of public spirited citizens, giving what time 
they can spare from their own affairs, and a salaried sec- 
retary and staff who devote their whole time to its busi- 
ness. All institutions desirous of receiving aid from the 
State are required to present their case first to the State 
Board of Charities. 5 Based on the facts contained in 
these applications, and the knowledge of the board gained 
by their own inspection, a detailed recommendation is 
made by the board to the Legislature. To this recom- 
mendation the appropriation committee pays exactly as 
much attention as to it seems best, generally little enough. 
It is probable that they give more attention to this 
report than appears on the surface, since without it they 
would be totally at sea, but the many differences between 
the report of the appropriation committee and the recom- 
mendations of the State Board of Charities make it clear 
that the appropriation committee seems to consider it 
necessary, in order to preserve its own dignity, to dif- 
fer from the State Board of Charities. 

Owing to the method of charitable appropriation 
which has grown up, Pennsylvania is becoming more in- 
volved year after year. At the time of the adoption of 

(5) Act April 24th, 1869, P. L. 90, See. 9. 

4 



50 STATE GOVERNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

the Constitution, the appropriation of money to privately 
managed institutions, though not unknown, had not 
reached striking proportions. The Constitution makers 
had the matter in mind, hut apparently considered that 
the requirement of a two-thirds vote would be a practical 
prohibition of such appropriations. 6 They could not have 
foreseen the "quick way" of passing appropriation bills, 
by means of which a two-thirds vote or even a unanimous 
vote is as easy to achieve as any other. When once the 
principle was established that the State was willing to 
assist in the support of privately managed charities, 
there was certain to be a steadily increasing demand. 
The opportunities for extending charity are boundless, 
and the needs of every charitable institution are pressing 
and continuous. Once let the State begin appropriating 
to a privately managed institution and the amount prac- 
tically becomes a fixed annual liability of the State, for 
the managers of the institution, having been led to expect 
regular State aid, shape their plans accordingly, and if 
the Legislature should suddenly cease to give, the great- 
est hardships to the unfortunates would ensue. New 
charities, however, are constantly being organized, and 
applying to the State for aid. As these new charities 
have exactly the same reason for receiving money as 
have the older charities, namely, that they need it, it is 
difficult to discriminate against them, and the ordinary 
result is that the new charities take their place alongside 
of the old, and the total amount of the State appropria- 
tion is swelled. 

The evils of the system which we have just described 
are sufficient to justify considerable pessimism, were it 
not for the fact that the remedy is easy to discover and 
to apply. Consider the parallel case of the appropria- 
tion for the public schools. This is nearly three times 

(6) Art. Ill, Sec. 17. 



THE LEGISLATIVE SPENDING MONEY. 51 

as large as the appropriation for private charities. 7 Each 
school district would like to have all the money it could 
possibly get from the State, and yet no one ever hears of 
the various school districts clamoring to the Legisla- 
ture for a special appropriation bill, or of members com- 
promising their independence in order to obtain a large 
school appropriation. The reason is apparent. The ap- 
propriation is made in one lump sum and distributed on 
a basis of apportionment fixed by law. 8 

There is no reason why the State's bounty to its 
charitable institutions should not be apportioned in a 
similar way. The basic reasons for the failure of the 
Legislature in the matter of charitable appropriations 
is the fact that it is trying to do work which is not legis- 
lative in nature, but administrative. To regulate the 
channels of expenditure is, of course, a proper function 
of the Legislature, but not minutely to apportion funds 
among a great number of institutions of the same class. 
The Legislature should determine nothing more than the 
amount of money it intends to apply in meeting its chari- 
table obligations and the classes of beneficiaries who are 
to receive its bounty. Then it should indicate the basis 
upon which the money is to be distributed and should 
erect sufficient administrative machinery to supervise 
the work in which the State invests so heavily and to 
apportion the money on the basis laid down. The fixing 
of the basis for the proper distribution of the money will 
not be without difficulty. To frame an act defining the 
grounds upon which a charity may apply as a matter of 

(7) At the session of 1917, $18,000,000 was appropriated to the 
public schools, besides other large amounts for other educational 
purposes. 

(8) All appropriation made for the maintenance and support of 
the public school system after the approval of this act shall be 
apportioned and distributed by the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion as herein provided. School Code, Sec. 2302. Act May 18, 1911, 
P. L., p. 309. 



52 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

right to the State for aid, so as to do complete justice 
everywhere, will not be easy but should not be beyond 
the powers of anyone who has given the subject careful 
and conscientious consideration. The general lines upon 
which such a distribution would proceed are not difficult 
to ascertain. For instance, in the case of hospitals, the 
free patient day could be considered a unit and a fixed 
amount allowed for each patient maintained free for one 
day. If the payment were fixed at the proper figure, 
there would be no motive for unduly receiving patients 
free, for their presence would not result in profit. In 
the case of homes and asylums, the matter would be 
simpler yet. The mere number of inmates, with grad- 
ations for the ages of the different classes, could be made 
the basis of distribution. 

It might be objected that by such a change the seat of 
trouble would simply be shifted from the Legislature, 
where the final voting, at least, is public, to the secret 
processes of an administrative bureau, and that the enor- 
mous powers of favoritism and discrimination would en- 
able the apportioning officer to become a great political 
power, and that the last state of the matter would be 
worse than the first. But the difference between the two 
methods of distribution is absolute. The Legislature has 
an irresponsible and uncontrolled discretion to give or 
not to give as seems to it best for any kind of reason, 
personal or political, or for no reason. The administra- 
tive officer would not have such discretion. He is respon- 
sible for all his acts, and if he should attempt to deprive 
any institution of money which had a right to it, the 
courts would promptly grant relief. The experience of 
the State in the distribution of the school fund ought 
to be conclusive answer to any such suggestion. But, 
even suppose there should be favoritism in the appor- 
tionment of the money and that some institutions should 
get more than their share and some less, in what way 



THE LEGISLATUEE SPENDING MONEY. 53 

would matters be worse than at present? The managers 
of the charitable institutions might be subject to political 
pressure, but so they are now. Political ends might be 
achieved by means of the appropriations, but so they are 
now. At the worst the evil would localize itself in its- 
own proper sphere, and the Legislature would be re- 
lieved of the poison which is now slowly invading the 
whole body politic. 

Notwithstanding the amount of space which we have 
devoted to the matter of charitable appropriations, it 
must not be supposed that this is the only subject which 
occupies the attention of the appropriation committee. 
That hard pressed body must pass upon the advisability 
of the expenditure of nearly every dollar appropriated 
by the State. In the session of 1913 this amounted to 
$87,164,430. Of course, it must conduct its work always 
in view of the total amount of the State's revenue. In 
other words, it is the sole authority for the making of a 
budget. Budget making is the weakest part of the Amer- 
ican system of government. Where, as in a responsible 
cabinet system of government, the administrative officers 
have place upon the floor of the legislative body, there 
is no difficulty in their presenting to such bodies their 
complete plans, both for the raising of revenue and the 
expenditure of the public fund. These two things, bal- 
anced against each other, produce what is technically 
known as a budget. In the American system of com- 
plete separation between the executive and legislative 
branches of the government, and largely on account of 
a certain jealousy which is apt to exist between them, 
anything in the nature of a real budget is practically un- 
known. The calculations, mental or otherwise, which 
form the basis of the appropriation committee's recom- 
mendation, is the nearest approach to a budget which 
we in Pennsylvania have. 9 

(9) The budget system, being right, will prevail, but its progress 



54 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

It may be of interest to trace the general depart- 
ments of expenditure of the State. 10 There was appropri- 
ated by the session of 1917 for Department and Govern- 
ment Expenses for two years, the sum of $35,099,281.13. 
The judiciary required $3,019,115.00 and the Legislature 
$962,011.50. Commissions for doing this, that and the 
other thing were nourished to the extent of $3,371,400.00. 
A swarm of subjects, too numerous to be otherwise classi- 
fied than as "Miscellaneous/' required $453,378.89. For 
education, including common schools, normal schools and 
universities, there was appropriated the not inconsider- 
able sum of $21,154,802.42. To maintain the evil doers of 
the State where they are not in a position to cause mis- 
chief cost $1,858,559.96. 

The remaining channel of expenditure may be com- 
prehended under the general term, charitable. The State 
makes appropriation to three classes of charitable insti- 
tutions, (1) Those institutions which are entirely sup- 
ported and controlled by the State, known as State insti- 
tutions. Among these are hospitals for all grades of 
mentally deficient, hospitals for the sick and injured and 
homes for dependents. (2) Those institutions which are 
largely supported by the State and over which the State 
has a measure of control, but which are also managed 
and supported by individual citizens. These are known 
as semi-State institutions. (3) Finally comes the purely 
private charities to which the State extends its generous 
hand. In the year of which we speak, the State institu- 
tions received $8,499,886.73, and semi-State institutions 

is slow. President Taft tried in vain to have it introduced into the 
national government. The New York Constitutional Convention of 
1915 endeavored to embody the budget in the fundamental law of 
that state, Art. V, but their whole work was rejected. 

(10) Advance proof sheets of Smull's Legislative Handbook for 
1917. The classification here given is not very enlightening, but is 
used, since details can be found in Smull's. 



THE LEGISLATUKE SPENDING MONEY. 55 

$1,589,507.87, and the private charities, $6,198,175.00. 11 
These figures will give some conception of the magnitude 
of the State government, even from a merely business 
point of view. If we compare the State as a business cor- 
poration with any other of the small number of corpora- 
tions whose business amounts to such enormous figures, 
we would be amazed at the difference in the attitude of 
mind with which the problem of expenditure is approach- 
ed and in the difference of the calibre of the men who are 
charged with the responsibility. The members of the 
appropriation committee themselves would be the last 
to claim that they were leaders in business and finance. 
They would probably be satisfied to have it believed that 
they had done their best according to their several abili- 
ties. Why the practical citizens of a great industrial and 
manufacturing commonwealth like Pennsylvania are con- 
tent to leave the distribution of the princely revenues of 
the State to such men as they generally send to their 
Legislature is one of those problems which must always 
be obscure even to those who by study and personal ex- 
perience have some ground for the formation of an opin- 
ion. 



(11) Figures, for State institutions do not include $3,384,180 for 
tuberculosis sanatoria, dispensaries, etc. under the Department of 
Health. In the figures given in the text the appropriation for the 
indigent insane is included in that to State Institutions, though not 
all the indigent insane are supported in such institutions. 



CHAPTER VI. 

LEGISLATION AS AN INSTEUMENT OF PKOGEESS. 

TO know what is possible is one of the chief elements 
of practicality, It is true that at times some 
dreamer urges triumphantly his seemingly vision- 
ary scheme and the world awakens to find it a reality, but 
this is a rare occurrence, and when it takes place it is 
only because the world is blinded to what the really prac- 
tical is. Some wild schemes succeed, but they succeed be- 
cause they are sound, not because they are wild. Their 
wildness is simply an additional handicap for their 
soundness to overcome. The practical citizen will want 
to assure himself of the paths of progress that are open 
at the present, that he may press forward to the firing 
line and make his shots count in the great advance. Of 
all the dull-witted darkeners of counsel, the most de- 
structive is the idea that there are no such paths. After 
the earth has progressed from a fiery nebula to a fertile 
world, from a protozoon to a man, and man from savagery 
to civilization, the notion that present conditions are to 
be petrified for all future time is more absurd than that 
Niagara should halt in its plunge or that time itself 
should cease. 

Much of the progress in civic affairs must necessarily 
be achieved through legislation. This is a powerful in- 
strument, but not all powerful. Its limitations are clear. 
It is but the formal expression of the will of the people, 
and, as with the acts of will of individuals, it may repre- 
sent a passing phase, not backed up by solid conviction. 
Just as in the individual mind there are warring motives 
striving for the upper hand, so in the State there are con- 
tending parties, and sometimes laws are adopted by a 

56 



LEGISLATION AND PKOGBESS. 57 

bare majority so distasteful to the minority as to cause 
more trouble in enforcement than the majority are able 
or willing to take. A second limitation is the difficulty 
of framing in words a statute which must be applied amid 
the ever changing conditions of the world. The man who 
would write a new law on the statute book must shoulder 
the responsibility of foreseeing every possible set of cir- 
cumstances under which the law might operate. The 
most unexpected results oftentimes flow from changes in 
the law, just as the introduction of a few rabbits changed 
the problems of the Australian farmer. Notwithstanding 
the responsibility involved, people with special interests 
to serve do not hesitate to urge legislation which will ful- 
fil their desires. Our whole system of politics favors the 
passage of such legislation. Any bill which does not 
arouse serious antagonism, political or otherwise, is more 
likely to be adopted than not, because it is easier to give 
a costless favor than to withhold it, easier to please a 
present suppliant than to estimate the effect on a distant, 
careless and ungrateful public. The result of this state 
of affairs is that our statute books bulk large with medi- 
ocre legislation, but that there is a sad lack of carefully 
wrought constructive statutes. Progress there is, of 
course, but it is sporadic, the resultant of many individual 
and incomplete efforts rather than the product of a wise 
and continuous application to the general good. 

Since the practical citizen must do much of 
his work through changes in the law, it is well that 
he should give consideration to the possibilities and limi- 
tations of law as an instrument of human progress. 
There are two opposing points of view, each as 
wrong as the other. One adopted by those who, 
whenever they see an evil, say, "There ought to 
be a law against that"; the other by those who, 
whenever asked to help some movement for bet- 
terment, reply, "You can't make men good by law." 



58 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

The former is frequently foolish, wrong-headed or med- 
dlesome, but at least it springs from a generous desire 
to make things better, while the latter is all too frequently 
the refuge of smug satisfaction with things as they are 
when faced with a call to make them better. It is true 
enough that a direct fiat, "Thou shaft be good" seldom 
has much effect. It is asserted that once a member of 
the Kansas Legislature introduced a bill enacting the 
ten commandments. Had this bill been adopted it is 
not likely that the commandments would have been less 
frequently shattered, yet the very existence of our statute 
law as a whole bears irrefutable testimony to the fact, 
that while it may be impossible to make men moral by 
law, it is still possible to restrain and encourage them, 
and in many ways support, protect and advance the civi- 
lization which the world has so laboriously built up. 
When the expression that men are not to be made moral 
by statute is used as a guiding and restraining principle 
in an effort to discover the most effective form of statu- 
tory attack upon the problem in hand, it is a useful sum- 
mary of considerable experience, but when it is used in 
condemnation of laudable effort at statutory betterment, 
or in excuse of indifference to such efforts, it is always 
suggestive of lack of interest in public improvement. 

The best example of the type of legislation which re- 
quires that a citizen shall or shall not do a specific thing, 
is the criminal law. Bounds are laid down that must 
not be overstepped, and a penalty is fixed for any infrac- 
tion. The usefulness and even the necessity of such legis- 
lation, of course, cannot be gainsaid, but the penal method 
has always been found singularly ineffective in securing 
obedience to the general will. In older days it was sup- 
posed that the effectiveness of the statute was in direct 
proportion to the severity of the punishment, and conse- 
quently a great number of offences were punishable by 
death. Yet experience has proved that this theory is by 



LEGISLATION AND PROGRESS. 59 

no means correct, and there has been a steady ameliora- 
tion of the penal aspect of statutory law. The fact seems 
to be that men's desires are stronger than their fear of 
punishment, especially among the criminal classes, whose 
imaginations are seldom active. When this lack of the 
apprehension of the consequences of crime is strength- 
ened by the known failures in the administration of crim- 
inal law, it is hardly to be wondered at that the criminal 
code is not more effective in securing obedience to the 
settled will of the community. 

While we shall never be able to get away from the 
direct methods of legislating against crime, future gen- 
erations will see a great extension of the tendency which 
is now evident of attacking the other branch of the prob- 
lem. If men's desires are stronger than their fear of 
punishment the wise way would seem to be to influence 
the men so that their desires would come into harmony 
with the best will of the community. That men can be 
influenced is an idea which is much more strongly held 
in modern times than of old, since it is now realized that 
what men are, including what they desire, is to a very 
large extent moulded by the circumstances with which 
they are surrounded from their earliest days. Hence 
modern ideas dictate the indirect method of approaching 
the problem of human wrong-doing. 

A study of child life has brought us to realize that 
many of the acts of children which have hitherto been 
classed as crimes, as similar acts of adults would properly 
be, are simply the overflowing of natural childish energy 
which in itself is a sign of health rather than of criminal 
tendencies. The older method would have been to con- 
fine the child in jail till it had no more energy to overflow. 
The newer method is to surround the child with condi- 
tions which permit the full exercise of all his faculties in 
useful and educative directions. To this end we have 



60 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

the whole playgrounds movement, which is doing so much 
for the youth of the country at large. 

The Child Labor laws, with their complement in the 
laws requiring a continuation of education after leaving 
the ordinary public schools, are calculated to the same 
end, — the protection of the young life until it reaches 
adult self-sufficiency. 

Students of human life now realize also that the home 
conditions under which children are brought up have 
vastly more to do with the question of whether they are 
willing to obey the law or not than has their fear of being 
caught and punished. Overcrowded and insanitary liv- 
ing conditions, lack of privacy and insufficient opportun- 
ity for cleanliness obstruct seriously the development of 
normal characters; consequently, those who would im- 
prove the citizenship of the State are striving diligently 
for the passage of laws which make impossible the serious 
evils which are now too prevalent in the housing condi- 
tions of a large section of the population. 

It is also known that, to a considerable degree, what 
used to be set down in boys to pure badness is really 
due to illness, physical or mental. It is possible to whip 
a feeble-minded child because it will not learn, but it will 
learn faster if treated as only modern science knows how 
to treat the unfortunate of that condition. Consequently, 
we are now developing medical inspection in public 
schools and we are providing for public sanitation in a 
way that was never known before. 

Many of the evil conditions which surround the grow- 
ing citizen are traceable primarily to poverty and where 
that poverty can be relieved by State action the State 
is beginning to fulfil its duty. Up until the first of Janu- 
ary, 1916, the dependents of a workman killed or injured 
at his industry had almost no chance of any recovery for 
the loss which they had sustained. Frequently such a 
death or injury reduced the family to the most abject 



LEGISLATION AND PBOGKESS. 61 

poverty and finally cast a burden upon the community 
to be shouldered through the inefficient and wasteful 
methods of the poor-laws. Good citizenship seldom 
comes out of the almshouse. But now poverty due to 
industrial accident is a thing of the past, and workmen 
injured in their ordinary task are assured for themselves 
or their family of a reasonable compensation. 

Another very similar source of social loss was due 
to the fact that the community supported the chil- 
dren of widowed mothers, either by public or private 
charity, while the mothers labored to support themselves. 
The widow's pension law simply hires the mother to take 
care of her own children, as Pharaoh's daughter took 
care of Moses, and so achieves a better result with little 
or no additional expense. The system of mother's pen- 
sions has not yet been fully developed, and there is a large 
field for the activities of the practical citizen in the im- 
proving and extending this portion of the statute law. 

The same theory of the prevention of crime by im- 
proving environment is worked out even with those who 
have already committed crimes. It is now realized that 
criminals are human beings, and that human beings sur- 
rounded by the conditions of the ordinary prison are apt 
to become more and more confirmed in their hatred of 
society. Consequently, we find prison conditions being 
constantly improved, not for the purpose of the more 
hospitable entertainment of the involuntary guests of the 
Commonwealth, but in order that the human material 
within the walls of our penal institutions may be re- 
moulded into useful forms. The task of changing prison 
environments calls for unusually wise, able, and sympa- 
thetic prison administrators. It also calls for a thorough 
revision of the statutes which regulate punishment and 
the conduct of penal institutions. Much has been done 
in recent years. Prisoners may now be employed at use- 
ful labor to an extent which was hitherto impossible, but 



62 STATE GOVEENMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

there is still a large field for careful and conscientious 
study, and, in so far as prisoners may be reclaimed by 
humane treatment, it can be said in the most literal sense 
that men can be made good by statute. 

The common element in all of the methods of forcing 
improvement through law which we have suggested is 
that they work by indirection through a change in the 
environment of the citizen. There is another great prin- 
ciple which will assist in guiding the practical citizen to 
legislative effort that is worth while. This principle is 
that the possibility of achieving an end by means of law 
depends very largely upon the adequacy of the machin- 
ery which is set up by law for that purpose. Of course, 
a large part of the machinery of government would come 
under this category, and any improvement in it would 
be an example of what has just been said, but coming 
down to very much more specific matters, it is not diffi- 
cult to see that the failures in certain directions, which 
so often discourage people about the possibility of im- 
provement through law, have been due to defects in the 
means which the draftsman of the act selected to make 
his idea workable. 

One of the first equipments of a person who is about 
to draft a law which will put into force a totally new 
idea in legislation, is a thorough understanding of human 
nature and an ability to foresee what the reaction of peo- 
ple generally will be to the law intended. If the law to 
be enacted is of such a nature as to receive general ac- 
quiescence, it is not necessary to elaborate the 
machinery with which it is to be put in force; 
but if there is a powerful element in the com- 
munity whose interest is deeply engaged in cir- 
cumventing the law, then the utmost care must be taken 
that the machinery shall be adequate. The election laws 
are a good example of this sort of elaboration. The great 
bulk of the laws governing elections is due to the fact 



LEGISLATION AND PEOGKESS. 63 

that it is an immense clerical job to ascertain in the course 
of one day and record properly the will of hundreds of 
thousands of people. But another large part of the elec- 
tion laws has found its way upon the statute book in an 
effort to circumvent one after another the various 
schemes which have been thought out to subvert the elec- 
tion and make it record the will of the voters falsely. At 
the very outset it is necessary to prevent people from vot- 
ing who have no right to do so. Earlier laws on the sub- 
ject having proven insufficient, it was necessary to enact 
the Personal Eegistration law. These acts do not make 
the repeater any more moral, he is not made good by 
statute, but he is almost entirely prevented from regis- 
tering. Secondly, it is necessary to provide that the will 
of the voter as expressed by the ballot is his will, and 
not that of someone else, so we have the secret voting 
booth, the unidentifiable ballot and provisions against 
bribery. The Corrupt Practices Act is simply an elabor- 
ate piece of machinery for the purpose of trying to make 
bribery impossible. The job is bo difficult that even this 
elaborate piece of legislation goes but a short way, but 
it has its distinct usefulness and is a good example of 
the evolving machinery required to meet the situation 
brought about by a constant effort to evade law. One 
loophole which has availed the briber and intimidator has 
been the permission granted to the voter to ask for 
assistance in the marking of his ballot. This loophole 
has been pretty fairly stopped so far as voting in the 
primary is concerned, but it is still open in voting at 
the general election. What a serious defect in the machin- 
ery of the law this is can only be realized by those who 
have had considerable experience at the polls. A proper 
assistance clause in the general election act would not 
make people more moral, but it would protect the secrecy 
and inviolability of the ballot. 

The Civil Service Reform Act affords a beautiful 



64 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

example of what elaborate machinery is sometimes re- 
quired to support the good instincts of public officials and 
protect them against destructive influences. These acts 
cannot have any very direct influence upon the character 
of public administrators, but they do compel the selection 
to public office of men who have proved themselves rea- 
sonably competent for their positions and, to a very large 
degree, restrain the public official from making use of his 
office as a political machine. Of course, these ends are 
not entirely secured, partly because the machinery is not 
yet perfect, partly because perfection in such an end is 
beyond the reach of machinery, but it has been demon- 
strated to the satisfaction of every fair-minded man that 
the introduction of such machinery results in improved 
conditions, and the practical citizen will be interested in 
studying the make-up and operation of machinery of this 
kind in order that it may be adapted to other salutary 
purposes. 

The short ballot, small council, and other devices for 
securing concentrated control and responsibility simi- 
larly illustrate how much can be accomplished by a 
proper adaptation of means to ends. The short ballot does 
not make the voter any more intelligent, it simply presents 
him no more candidates than he is able actually to select 
from his personal knowledge. The result is a much 
closer approximation in government to the popular will. 
Senator Root, in defending the provisions of the draft of 
Xew York's new constitution, which provided for a con- 
centration of power on the short ballot principle, indicated 
most forcibly his belief in the idea that the mere machin- 
ery of government had much to do with the question of the 
existence of invisible government. 

The idea that machinery may aid morality runs 
through all the elaborate procedure of awarding and let- 
ting contracts. It is well known that there is a constant 
tendency to take advantage of public bodies in doing con- 



LEGISLATION AND PKOGKESS. 65 

tract work. Secret and competitive bidding takes it out 
of the power of the public officer to show favoritism 
among rival contractors. The machinery in this direc- 
tion is not yet perfect. There is much for the practical 
citizen to do in this direction, yet what has been done 
illustrates the point. 

What has already been said at an earlier point in this 
book about the contrast between the destruction of civic 
virtue which arises from the distribution of public funds 
to private charities and the total absence of such disturb- 
ing features from the distribution of a still larger sum 
among the various public school districts of the State, 
illustrates perhaps more clearly than anything else the 
tremendous differences which result merely from a change 
in the machinery by which a thing is done. 

With all the illustrations just given of how statute law 
may modify the conditions of life and, therefore, the 
character and welfare of the citizens of the State, and of 
how the better motives of men may be protected and 
brought out and the sinister motives checked by the con- 
struction of adequate machinery for carrying out the 
purposes of government, no one sincerely interested in 
the welfare of the Commonwealth ought to be deterred 
from exerting his best endeavors by the reiteration of re- 
marks about there being too much law and about the im- 
possibility of reforming men by statutes. 

There is, of course, the danger that too much trust 
may be placed in statutory enactment. This danger must 
be avoided by the reasonable citizen as he would avoid 
any other danger. The recent craze for blue sky laws 
would illustrate as well perhaps as anything else the over- 
confidence in machinery as a method of protection. Ever 
since the corporation became the ordinary way of trans- 
acting large businesses, the industry of selling worthless 
stocks and bonds has flourished. It is simply one variety 
of fraud and the abuse of confidence, but it was felt that 



66 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

transactions in stocks and bonds were insufficiently 
hedged about and that the public must be protected 
against themselves. Where this idea was taken up with 
sufficient wisdom and knowledge of the subject, some 
valuable statutes were passed, but in too many cases the 
business of buying and selling -securities was so loaded 
down with statutory requirements that the cure was 
worse than the disease. 

The whole subject of the possibilities and limitations 
of legislation is worthy of much more consideration than 
it has ever received. There are some few treatises on 
the subject of statute draftsmanship, but they are almost 
entirely from the technical, legal point of view. An ade- 
quate study of the place of statute law in building up 
the life of the community, written from the standpoint 
of the statesman, still remains to be made. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE LEGISLATIVE KEFEKENCE BUKEAU COMMISSIONS. 

PEEHAPS it is a necessary implication of represen- 
tative government that the legislator, however un- 
instructed his previous condition, acquires by vir- 
tue of his election a supreme ability to pass upon the 
most difficult questions of the time. At any rate, we 
act as though such were the case, for our laws are 
made by a group of men who themselves would be the 
last to claim intellectual eminence or unusual breadth of 
information. And not only is it true that our legislators 
are but slightly above the average in ability, but also it 
is true that they must constantly make vital decisions 
while distracted by political turmoil and exhausted by 
the effort to keep up their usual business activities. 

It would seem to be a good policy for a State whose 
laws are enacted by such men to make information on 
the subjects of legislation as easy of assimilation as pos- 
sible, as the provident bee keeper provides wax founda- 
tion combs, to conserve the efforts of the bees for more 
profitable labor. To a certain extent this policy has long 
been recognized, and the Congressional Library, to- 
gether with the State libraries of the several Common- 
wealths, testify to the belief that it is a good thing for 
a legislator to be able to get a book when he wants it. 

It remained for Dr. Charles McCarthy of Wisconsin 
to realize the necessity of the next logical step and to 
take it in practice. 1 

This step is the establishment of a special department 
of the government whose sole business it shall be to 

(1) "The Wisconsin Idea" by Dr. Charles McCarthy, pp. 207 ff. 
New York, The MiacMillan Company, 1912. 

67 



68 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

gather information concerning every matter likely to 
become a subject of legislation. Such departments are 
called "Legislative Reference Bureaus." They exist 
now in a number of States, usually in connection with 
State libraries. It can readily be seen that one man or 
a small body of men, especially trained, thoroughly 
equipped, and required to do nothing else is able to 
gather and arrange a mass of information on legisla- 
tive subjects such as the legislators themselves not only 
never would, but also never could, discover for them- 
selves. It is a practical answer to Goethe 's cry, "More 
light." 

Pennsylvania was not long in imitating Wisconsin in 
this improvement. In 1909 2 a legislative reference bur- 
eau was organized as a part of the State library, and 
manned by a director and an assistant director, the lat- 
ter required to be learned in the law. This bureau is 
now in complete running order and has already proved 
of great assistance to the Legislature, how great can only 
be realized by members who have served before and since 
its creation. The material gathered by it is largely in 
the form of pamphlets and clippings, since the legislator 
can seldom get much assistance out of books, because he 
is at the apex of events, doing the things which will 
afterwards be written about. 

So well satisfied was the Legislature with the ability 
displayed by the Legislative Eef erence Bureau that they 
intrusted to it a work of the greatest importance and 
difficulty, nothing less than the codification of the whole 
statute law of the State. 3 The mere word "code" seems 
to frighten many able members of the bar. If it is used 
to signify any attempt to petrify the living principles 

(2) Act April 27, 1909, P. L. 208. Amended by Act April 21, 
1911, P. L. 76. 

(3) Act of May 20, 1913,v P. L. 250. Continued under Act May 
14, 1915, P. L. 474 and Act May 3, 1917, P. L. 



REFERENCE BUREAU COMMISSIONS. 69 

of the law into statute form, the fear is justified, but the 
Legislature had no such idea in mind. 

The problem which confronted them was this : When 
Pennsylvania started its career it adopted the statute 
law of England entire, as far as it could be made to fit 
the new environment, and these laws were never re- 
pealed as a whole. In order to relieve to a certain ex- 
tent the confusion of such a wholesale yet indefinite adop- 
tion in 1807 the judges of the Supreme Court 
were directed to ascertain what British statutes 
were in force in Pennsylvania at that time. 4 
Since then the Legislature has gone on enacting, 
amending, supplementing and repealing, expressly or by 
implication, and the courts have been busy holding in- 
valid parts or the whole of statutes, until the statute law 
has come to be an almost impenetrable thicket. Most im- 
portant of all, the silent march of time has left many a 
statute sleeping quietly as obsolete, until galvanized into 
activity amid wholly unforeseen and incompatible sur- 
roundings. 

Sporadic and partial efforts have been made from 
time to time to alleviate the difficulty, as for instance, 
the criminal code of I860, 5 and more recently the splen- 
did example of the school code, 6 to clear the ground for 
which stately structure the repeal of two hundred acts 
was necessary. If this ratio were to continue to hold for 
a complete codification the whole body of statute law 
would be reduced, at least as far as number of statutes 
is concerned, to one two hundredth of its former extent. 

It was no part of the idea of the Legislature in in- 
structing the Legislative Reference Bureau to codify the 
statute law that new statute law should be created or that 
any hitherto fluid proposition of law should be frozen 



(4) Act April 7, 1807, P. L. 163. 

(5) Act of March 31, 1860, P. L. 382. 

(6) Act of May 18, 1911, P. L. 309. 



70 STATE GOVERNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

by enactment. It was only proposed that the State 
should begin to make it plain to its citizens what was the 
actual statute law of to-day, now that the Legislature 
had been at the task of making it for two and a quarter 
odd centuries. Could the State owe less to the citizen 
who obeys this law at his peril? 

The magnitude of the task was clearly recognized. 
Eesults worth attaining could not be had by a mere fiat. 
Ability, pains and time were requisite. The ability and 
the willingness to take pains were ready at hand in the 
Legislative Eeference Bureau and the assistants whom 
the adequate appropriation enabled the bureau to secure. 
The time element was provided for by directing results 
to be submitted to the Legislature topic by topic, so that 
the progress made would be apparent and the Legisla- 
ture would not be tempted to ignore the whole on account 
of its vastness, as might result if the whole code were 
presented at any one time. 

The bureau entered upon the work in the fullest sym- 
pathy with the aim of the Legislature. The results of 
two years' work were offered to the session of 1915 as 
codes under four titles, "taxation," "corporations," 
"boroughs" and a "general repealer of obsolete stat- 
utes." The Legislature found it easier to ignore 
than to consider this large work and passed only the 
borough code. 7 The rest of the work, however, once 
done, is not lost and in time the people of Pennsylvania 
will come to have a compact, logical and self-consistent 
set of statutes. The bureau was directed to continue its 
work of codification by the Legislatures of 1915 and 
1917. 8 

During the session of the Legislature the bureau is 
a busy place. Members constantly come and go. Some 

(7) Act of May 14. 1915, P. L. 312. The repealing clause, made 
up of the mere titles of acts repealed, occupies 45 pages. 

(8) Act of May 14, 1915, P. L. 474. Act of May 3, 1917, P. L. 



REFERENCE BUREAU COMMISSIONS. 71 

want bills drawn. Some want to know what other bills 
similar to the one they have introduced are already 
before one or the other of the Houses. Some want liter- 
ature on subjects in which they are interested and on 
which they expect to address the House. For all de- 
mands the well organized machinery of the bureau is 
ready. The ideas which the member who wants a bill 
drawn has in mind are noted down, the files are searched 
for all light on the subject that is at hand, and the bill 
is drawn. A criticism that has been made is that it is 
now too easy to have a bill drawn, and that as a conse- 
quence too many bills are introduced. This criticism is 
not justified. Of course, the bureau would have no right 
to refuse to draw a bill for a member, or to usurp the 
function of the Legislature by opposing any subject of 
legislation, but in performing its functions of giving in- 
formation to the members, it is able to point out to those 
who desire a bill, that the subject is already covered by 
a statute, if that be the case, or that a simple amendment 
to already existing law would be better than a new act, 
or that the proposed bill is in violation of the Constitu- 
tion, and in general to shed a great deal of light on the 
subject, with the result that the stream of legislation is 
purified at its source. 

When a member read his calendar, in the days before 
the establishment of the Eeference Bureau, and saw 
among the day's work a bill in which he was interested, 
but about the subject of which he lacked certain definite 
information, he resigned himself to the necessity of act- 
ing without the information. Now he claps his hands, 
and tells the page who answers his signal to get the re- 
quired information from the bureau. In a marvelously 
short time the information is brought. The promptitude 
which characterizes the bureau is made possible by its 
extensive and elaborate index system which makes its 
large store of material instantly available. 



72 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

The establishment of the Legislative Reference Bur- 
eau was one of those permanent gains that mark the 
progress in government building. 

COMMISSIONS. 

It frequently happens that a piece of public business 
needs to be done that falls within the duty of no public 
officer and which is not of sufficient importance to war- 
rant the creation of a new official to care for it. The 
usual method of meeting such a situation is the creation 
of a special commission for the purpose. These commis- 
sions are numerous, and may roughly be divided into 
legislative commissions and executive commissions. 

The legislative commissions are those charged with 
some duty which is of assistance to the Legislature in its 
work. The Legislative Reference Bureau is a perman- 
ent part of the State government and is always at work 
collecting information for the Legislature. Special oc- 
casions arise, however, when the Legislature desires to 
be informed on some subject which requires examination 
of experts in the particular subject to be studied. "When 
the examination has been made and the report rendered, 
the commission has done its work and may retire, while 
a special office, had it been created, would not have been 
so easily disposed of. A good example of such a com- 
mission is that which was created to draft the school 
code. It would not have been possible for the whole 
Legislature to have done the work of study and consul- 
tation which was required to produce the school code, nor 
could any ordinary committee have been expected to do 
it. The work required a broad knowledge of educational 
problems and a general acquaintance with the require- 
ments of the different parts of the State. The Legisla- 
ture, by creating this commission, practically made it one 
of its own committees, and when the resulting act was 
adopted, there was little in it that was not the work of 



BEFEBENCE BUBEAU COMMISSIONS. 73 

the commission. Other problems are handled in the same 
way, and when the proponents of new measures of social 
advance find that the minds of the legislators are not 
sufficiently prepared to act formally on their suggestion, 
they frequently urge that the matter be referred to a 
special commission for study and report. Use is also 
made of the commission by the opponents of such legis- 
lation, for they frequently succeed in sidetracking some 
bill that might otherwise have passed, by having the 
whole subject to which it relates referred to a commis- 
sion for report at the next session, two years away. Most 
legislators when puzzled are glad to vote for delay, so 
the commission idea has many friends. 

Another typical form of legislative commission is 
the Investigating Commission, sometimes called a Lexow 
Commission, after the name of a member of the New 
York Legislature who headed a famous commission of 
this nature. When an investigating commission is cre- 
ated by joint resolution, that is, by action of both Houses, 
it has all the power of the Houses themselves in compell- 
ing attendance and punishing contempt, so that it is a 
very powerful means of bringing hidden things to light. 
Unfortunately, it is all too frequently employed for par- 
tisan purposes. Hence the reputation of the investigat- 
ing committee is not of the best. 

Executive commissions are those which are charged 
with the doing of a particular piece of work, other than 
that of securing information for the Legislature, e. g., 
the Commission to Select a Site and Erect an Industrial 
Home for Women. There have been a great number of 
such commissions, since it has been the custom to create 
a commission for the building of each new State institu- 
tion. Other temporary State activities have their own 
commissions, of which the Capitol Park Extension Com- 
mission is a type. It is not worth while to enumerate 
the commissions of this nature existing at present, as 



74 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

they are constantly changing as new work is found that 
is not within the purview of any State official. 

Although as a general rule the members of a commis- 
sion are selected from the citizenship outside the State 
employ, there is no reason why State officials should not 
also serve on special commissions, and for them to do so 
is by no means rare. An interesting case where a com- 
mission of three citizens not in State employ was contin- 
ued with its membership changed to consist entirely of 
State officers, is that of the Economy and Efficiency Com- 
mission. 

This commission was created by joint resolution. 9 of 
the Legislature of 1913, directing the Governor to ap- 
point "three persons who are well versed in business and 
governmental affairs, and in systems of economy and 
efficiency in administration." The duty of this commis- 
sion was "to investigate the number, character of duties 
and compensation of all persons in the employ of the 
State ; and to ascertain and recommend what changes, if 
any, may be necessary to secure greater uniformity, 
economy and efficiency in the work of the various depart- 
ments, branches, bureaus, and commissions of the gov- 
ernment of this State." This was rather a large task, 
and the report of this commission touches on a number 
of matters, without going very deeply into any. How- 
ever, it made a number of valuable suggestions, which 
the Legislature, on receiving the report, promptly 
ignored. Chief among these was the recommendation 
that a State Civil Service system should be established. 

Those interested in economy and efficiency probably 
felt that the coldness of the Legislature arose from the 
fact that the suggestions came from outsiders, so by the 
next Legislature, 10 the task was laid upon a new com- 
mission made up of the Governor, Attorney General and 

(9) Approved July 25, 1913, P. L. 1260. 

(10) Concurrent resolution approved, June 17, 1915, P. L. 1082. 



REFERENCE BUREAU COMMISSIONS. 75 

Auditor General. It might be supposed that these offici- 
als would have the power and duty of performing such 
work by virtue of their offices, but the Legislature did 
not seem to think so. The new commission employed as 
their solicitor the chairman of the old commission, and 
the only report of the second commission printed is the 
report of their solicitor, so there is a strong family like- 
ness between the two commissions. Accompanying this 
report is a chart showing the relationship of all boards, 
bureaus, commissions and departments comprising the 
executive branch of the State government. This chart 
exhibits in a graphic way much that we have written of 
in this book, and for that reason has been adopted as a 
frontispiece. 

Unfortunately the Legislature paid little more atten- 
tion to the report of the second commission, though this 
commission was composed of the highest State officers, 
than it did to the first, which goes to show that it is hard 
to get the Legislature to do anything, and especially hard 
to make it enthusiastic for economy and efficiency. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE EXECUTIVE. 



THE executive of Pennsylvania is a department, and 
not, as in the case of the United States, a person, 1 
yet the Pennsylvania Constitution is careful to 
leave no doubt as to who is chief in that department. It 
provides, ' ' The supreme executive power shall be vested 
in the Grove rnor. ' ' 2 Great stress was placed on this clause 
by a recent picturesque chief executive in controversy with 
a newspaper over the right of cartoonists to portray their 
opinion of the Governor. It need hardly be pointed out 
that " supreme executive power" is still only executive 
power, power to execute the laws, and that the Governor 
can no more transcend them than the humblest cart o oner. 
The placing of the executive power in a department is 
in evident imitation of the United States government, not 
as it was originated, but as it came to be through the 
growth of the cabinet, a body which is not found in the 
Constitution, but which was created piecemeal as need 
arose. How close the correspondence is between the 
executive department of Pennsylvania and the cabinet 
of the United States may be illustrated by comparing the 
several officials. The Governor, of course, corresponds 
closely to the President, the Lieutenant Governor to the 

(1) The Constitution of the United States provides (Art. II, 
Sec. 1), "The executive power shall be vested in a President of the 
United States of America." The Constitution of Pennsylvania reads 
(Art. IV, Sec. 1), "The executive department of this Commonwealth 
shall consist of a Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of the 
Commonwealth, Attorney General, Auditor General, State Treasurer, 
Secretary of Internal Affairs and a Superintendent of Public In- 
struction." 

(2) Art. IV, Sec. 2. 



THE EXECUTIVE. 77 

Vice President, the Secretary of the Commonwealth to 
the Secretary of State, the Attorney General to the officer 
of the same name, the Auditor General and State Treas- 
urer together to the Secretary of the Treasury, and the 
Secretary of Internal Affairs to the Secretary of the In- 
terior. Several of the United States cabinet officers are 
not paralleled in Pennsylvania; the Postmaster General, 
because a State can have no use for such an official; the 
Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Labor, be- 
cause the influences which brought about the creation of 
these departments were not potent at the time of the 
adoption of Pennsylvania's Constitution. This lack was 
supplied as far as the Legislature had power by the re- 
cent creation of the Department of Labor and Industry, 3 
the officer at the head of which, known as the Commis- 
sioner, is not of less importance because his office is not 
mentioned in the Constitution. The Secretaries of War 
and of the Navy are not paralleled in Pennsylvania, as 
the State has no standing army nor navy, but the State 
has an Adjutant General who manages the details of the 
military system. 4 The Secretary of Agriculture in the 

(3) Act- of June 2, 1913, P. L. 396. 

(4) The military forces of the Commonwealth were reorganized 
to meet the exigencies of war by Act May 3, 1917, P. L. . The 
following acts (titles here abbreviated) were also adopted in view of 
war conditions : 

Regulating number, etc. of employees in Adjutant General ? s 
Department. Act July 18, 1917, P. L. 

Authorizing Cities of the Second Class to pay salaries to em- 
ployees enlisting, Act July 16, 1917, P. L. 

Authorizing the Governor to appoint volunteer police officers 
during war, Act July 18, 1917, P. L. 

Authorizing the State to Borrow Money, Act July 11, 1917, P. L. 

'Creating a Commission of Public Safety and Defense, Act May 
15, 1917, P. L. 

Providing for organization of additional armed land force, Act 
June 22, 1917, P. L. 

Providing that State employees shall not lose position by reason 
of entering army, Act June 7, 1917, P. L. 



78 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

United States Cabinet also has no parallel among the 
officers of the Pennsylvania Executive Department 
created by the Constitution, but there has been created 
by statute an officer of the same name and with similar 
functions. 

Notwithstanding the close correspondence between 
the Pennsylvania Executive Department and the United 
States Cabinet, and notwithstanding the fact that the 
Executive Department is a constitutional creation, while 
the Cabinet is not, Pennsylvania's Department does not 
work as a department and does not resemble the Cabinet 
at all in practice. No meetings of the Department, simi- 
lar to Cabinet meetings, are held, and no official acts are 
done in the name of the Department. The reason for 
this practical difference is to be found partly in State 
traditions which have come down from an earlier time, 
partly from the fact that the Governor is not confronted 
with as many complex and far reaching problems on 
which advice is needed as is the President, and partly 
from the fact that the Executive Department is made up 
of two wholly different kinds of officers, those appointed 
by the Governor and those elected by the people. The 
Lieutenant Governor, Auditor General, State Treasurer 
and Secretary of Internal Affairs are elected, the Secre- 
tary of the Commonwealth, Attorney General and Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction are appointed. 

The Governor occupies a position of real power. He 
is elected for four years and may not succeed himself. 
He appoints directly or indirectly all officers of the State, 
except those elected or receiving their appointment from 
elected officials, and thus has the disposal of a vast pat- 
ronage. Those appointed by him may be removed at his 

Regulating the purchase of supplies by Cities of the First Class, 
Act May 17, 1917, P. L. 

Authorizing Cities of the Second Class to buy and sell necessities 
of life, Act July 19, 1917, P. L. 



THE EXECUTIVE. 79 

pleasure. 5 He can call special sessions of the Legisla- 
ture and can veto any bill. The veto can be over-ridden 
only by a two-thirds vote of both Houses. He has the 
power to pardon, though in this he cannot go beyond the 
recommendations of the Pardon Board. He is com- 
mander-in-chief of the military forces of the State, and 
he has powers and duties given him by statutes too num- 
erous to mention. 

The Governor receives a salary of $10,000 a year, and 
is provided with an adequate mansion and with servants 
to maintain it, but as he can seldom cut off entirely home 
expenses during his term, and as there are many unavoid- 
able expenses of entertaining and otherwise, the office is 
not considered a place of profit. 

Next in the Executive Department comes the Lieu- 
tenant Governor, the close analogue of the Vice Presi- 
dent. In the early days when the Vice President was the 
person receiving the second highest number of electoral 
votes, he was sure to be a man capable of cutting a figure 
in national life. This provision in the Constitution shows 
how little our fathers anticipated the growth of the 
party system. They succeeded in doing what they set 
out to do, viz., secure good vice presidential timber, but 
they produced the unexpected result of automatically se- 
curing that the successor to the President must be of the 
opposite party, and thus unable to co-operate with him 
when living or carry on his policy after his death. The 
defect clearly outweighed the benefit of the provision and 
very promptly 6 the twelfth amendment was adopted, 



(5) "Appointed officers, other than judges of the courts of 
record and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, may be removed 
at the pleasure of the power by which they shall have been appoint- 
ed. " Const. Art. VI, Sec. 4. For a graphic presentation of the 
relation of the Governor to the other offices see frontispiece. 

(6) The Twelfth Amendment was submitted by resolution of 
Congress, passed on the 12th of December, 1803, and finally ratified 
in 1804. 



80 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

which provided the method of electing President and 
Vice President now in effect. 

This amendment secured its purpose of providing 
Vice Presidents of the same party as the President, but 
sacrificed the advantage of the original method, which 
was that the strongest type of man was secured. No 
doubt it was thought at the time that the office of Vice 
President of the United States was sufficiently exalted 
to attract the best type of citizens, and that it would be 
the last step in the line of promotion through which a pub- 
lic man might hope to reach the presidency. But this 
happened only once, in the case of Martin Van Buren, all 
other Vice Presidents who became President after 1804 
having done so by reason of the death of the President. 

Having the .spectacle of Andrew Johnson fresh be- 
fore their eyes, it might have been thought that the Con- 
stitution makers of Pennsylvania would omit a Vice Pres- 
ident and provide a succession in some other way. All 
the functions of a Vice President or Lieutenant Gover- 
nor could easily be discharged by others. The Senate 
could easily choose its own presiding officer, and any 
other functionary might be designated as the heir appar- 
ent. If the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the Gov- 
ernor's own choice, were to be the next in line, we prob- 
ably should get a better Secretary and have no use for a 
Lieutenant Governor. However, the Constitutional Con- 
vention did not see it in that light and provided us with a 
Lieutenant Governor. This office is the greatest sine- 
cure in the State government. The salary is $5,000 a 
year, there are practically no official expenses, and the 
duties of the office consist of little more than presiding 
occasionally over the Senate (for the president pro tern. 
is more often in the chair) and attending the meetings 
of the Pardon Board. 

Then comes the Secretary of the Commonwealth. 
This functionary is the nearest approach we have to a 



THE EXECUTIVE. 81 

Lord High Chancellor, though now the office is but a 
shadow of its historic original. All the judicial functions 
are quite gone and all the valuable patronage, so that 
our Secretary of the Commonwealth is hardly more than 
Chief Clerk of the State. He countersigns and keeps a 
record of the official doings of the Governor, and pre- 
serves the original of the acts passed by the Legislature 
and prepares them for publication. All the steps in 
organizing business corporations or in obtaining the right 
for a foreign corporation to do business in this State, go 
through the office. In analogy with the Secretary of 
State in the United States, he is the channel of dealing 
with other governments, but as the United States has full 
charge of negotiations with foreign countries, this func- 
tion of the Secretary of the Commonwealth consists in 
little more than attending to the details of extradition 
of fugitives from justice. Under the Constitution he 
acts as one of the Pardon Board. 7 Another of his con- 
stitutional obligations is "to perform such other duties 
as may be enjoined upon him by law." 8 This seemed a 
rather attractive invitation to the Legislature, and they 
wished on him membership in the Sinking Fund Commis- 
sion, the Board of Revenue Commissioners, the Board of 
Property, the Board to Pass Upon the Neces- 
sity for the Construction of Elevated and Underground 
Passenger Railways, the Board to License Private Bank- 
ers, and the Board of Trustees of the State Library. What 
gives him his dignity, however, and reveals his kinship to 
the Lord High Chancellor is that he is Keeper of the Great 
Seal of the Commonwealth. For doing these things he 
receives $8,000 a year and is under no public compulsion 
to spend any of it. 

The mixing of elective and appointive officers exhibits 
a curious blending of two theories of government, that of 

(7) Const. Art. IV, Sec. 9. 

(8) Const. Art. IV, Sec. 18. 
6 



82 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

the concentration of power and responsibility, now gain- 
ing- prestige under the names "short ballot,' ' "commis- 
sion form of government," etc., and the theory of checks 
and balances, one set of officers to watch another set. 

In the case of the Auditor General and the State 
Treasurer, the latter theory appears in its most defens- 
ible form, for the handling of money has always been 
recognized as a proper sphere for outside audit and 
check. The Auditor General is the chief accounting and 
settling officer of the State. No bills are paid by the 
State except upon warrant issued by him, and all State 
taxes are settled by him. The State Treasurer is the 
officer in charge of the State's cash. He also must be 
satisfied as to the correctness of settlements, so there is 
a double check in these matters. The reason for the elec- 
tion, rather than appointment, of the Secretary of In- 
ternal Affairs, requires more explanation. At the time 
of the drafting of the present Constitution the people 
were just awakening to the enormous and increasing 
power of the corporations, especially the rapidly con- 
solidating railroads. The importance which was at- 
tached to the control of corporations is illustrated by the 
presence in the Constitution of sections sixteen and 
seventeen, the one devoted to corporations and the other 
to railroads and canals. These articles contain many 
restrictive provisions, and as the Legislature was ex- 
pected to provide more regulation, the need was felt for 
a special officer to represent the interests of the public 
against the growing power of the corporations. Such a 
tribune of the people, of course, must be elected. Had 
the Constitution been written at any time after the cre- 
ation of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the duties 
of the Secretary of Internal Affairs would have been 
given to a body modeled after that commission, but as our 
Constitution makers did not have the benefit of the ex- 
perience of the United States in this respect, they fol- 



THE EXECUTIVE. 83 

lowed the older plan of providing for a special official. 
If the public interest which caused the provisions mention- 
ed to be included in the Constitution had continued suffi- 
ciently to insure the election of a secretary who was able 
to measure up to his responsibilities, and of Legislatures 
who would provide him with adequate statutory support, 
the recent history of Pennsylvania would have been very 
different, but timid administration and inadequate legis- 
lation have combined to reduce the office of Secretary of 
Internal Affairs to a position of impotence, and when 
there again arose a demand for railroad regulation, the 
Department of Internal Affairs was completely ignored 
and new agencies were created to do this work. 9 

The special interest for us of this Department of In- 
ternal Affairs lies in the fact that it is the department 
which seemed to be created for the functions of govern- 
ment that we call "direct usefulness." Its five bureaus 
all exhibit something of this idea. First, there is the 
Land Office. This is the lineal successor of the Land 
Office of early times when great quantities of land were 
held by the proprietor or the State, and when the busi- 
ness of selling it to private owners was very brisk. It 
would probably surprise most people to learn that there 
are still odds and ends of land remaining in the Common- 
wealth for which patents have never been issued, and that 
applications for such land are constantly being made. 10 

The Bureau of Assessment and Taxes collects statis- 
tics covering the amounts of assessments and rates of 
taxes in the various tax levying districts of the State. 
As no official action of any kind whatsoever is based 

(9) cf. infra. Public Service Commission. 

(10) "Thirteen applications for vacant land were investigated 
during the fiscal year just closed, ten of which were accepted and 
three refused. In addition to these, seven applications were filed 
during the year on which investigations are still pending for want 
of necessary data." 

Report Secretary of Internal Affairs, 1913, Part I. 



84 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

upon these statistics, their sole use is public information. 
Unfortunately the public has not shown much avidity to 
be informed on this subject, though when the time comes 
for a general renovation of the taxation laws of the State, 
the facts hidden away in the reports of the Secretary of 
Internal Affairs will be of great value. 

The Bureau of Industrial Statistics is the agency di- 
rectly created for the purpose of giving the State super- 
vision over the corporations and their relations with their 
employees. Much of the output of this bureau is statis- 
tics of the driest, but in part it represents the idea of a 
State interested in the welfare of its citizens. 11 Never- 
theless, the popular judgment of this bureau is regis- 
tered in the creation of the .Department of Labor and 
Industry. 12 

The Bureau of Railways collects a great volume of 
statistics concerning railroads, street railways, canal, 
telephone and telegraph lines, and these statistics have a 
certain interest, but when at last the people determined 
that public utilities should be regulated it was not to the 
Bureau of Railways that they turned, but they required 
the creation of a totally new agency, the Railroad Com- 
mission, 13 afterwards expanded into the Public Service 
Commission. 14 

The Bureau of Standards is a recent addition to the 
department, 15 and performs a service of direct useful- 
ness, for in it are preserved the standards of weights and 
measures which afford protection to the citizen against 
the wiles of the dishonest tradesman. 

(11) e. g. "The Industrial Condition of the Colored Race," 
Investigation for State Bureau of Industrial Statistics, by R. R. 
Wright, Jr., Ph. D., contained in Report of Secretary of Internal 
Affairs, 1913, Part III. 

(12) cf. infra. 

(13) Act May 31, 1907, P. L. 337. 

(14) Act July 26th, 1913, P. L. 1374. 

(15) Act June 23, 1911, P. L. 1118. 



THE EXECUTIVE. 85 

We have now made some mention of each member of 
the Executive Department, except the Attorney General 
and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. We need 
not linger over a description of the office of Attorney Gen- 
eral, for he is simply the law officer of the State and his 
duties are usually of a technical nature far removed from 
the sphere of government of which we have set out to 
write. On the other hand, the duties of the Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction touch that sphere so closely, 
that we must postpone a consideration of them to a later 
chapter. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS PEOFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION". 

WHEN democracy comes to defend herself against 
the uncongenial surroundings of the world, she 
finds ignorance her worst enemy. It is no mere 
chance that freedom and the university found foot- 
hold in this country at nearly the same time. The 
great free public school systems of the different 
States are the logical outgrowth of a republican 
form of government. We are now so familiar 
with the idea of free public education that we are 
apt to forget what a splendid example it is of the theory 
that the State should do something direct and practi- 
cal for the welfare of its citizens. It is the earliest of the 
State's activities in this direction, and to-day it absorbs 
a larger proportion of the State 's revenue than any other 
of its activities outside of mere government. 1 

Notwithstanding the fact that the State contributes 
liberally to the public school system and that this system 
is erected and energized by State law, the management 
of the public schools is almost entirely decentralized. 
This is owing to the fact that the State appropriation 
barely begins to meet all the expenses of the public 
schools, so that large sums must be raised by local taxa- 
tion. As the public school system has expanded the State 
has been paying a larger and larger percentage of the 
total expenditure, but the principle of local control has 
continued. 2 



(1) The appropriation for the two fiscal years beginning on the 
first Monday of July, 1917 was $18,000,000. General Appropriation 
Act 1917. 

(2) The recently established Public School Employes' Retire- 
ment System is under central management. Act July 18, 1917, P. L. 

86 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 87 

For a long time the laws governing the school system 
of the State were in a chaotic condition. The schools in 
different parts of the State were organized in different 
ways, and it was hard to ascertain just what was the law 
upon many points governing the school system. The con- 
dition became so troublesome that the legislature author- 
ized the appointment of a commission to prepare a code 
to simplify and harmonize the whole law upon the sub- 
ject. The commissioners appointed did excellent work, 
and prepared a school code which was presented to the 
session of 1909. On account of the conflicting ideas of 
the various sections of the State, the code was passed 
with great difficulty, and was vetoed by the Governor; 
but after two more years of agitation and education, a 
code very similar was enacted. 3 This code provides for 
a State Board of Education of six members, who, to- 
gether with the constitutional officer known as the Su- 
perintendent of Public Instruction, take care of the State's 
interests in the public school system and provide as 
much central supervision as is possible under the con- 
ditions of decentralization provided for throughout the 
remainder of the code. The members of the State Board 
of Education are appointed by the Governor and con- 
firmed by the Senate. Three of them are required to be 
successful educators of high standing connected with the 
public school system of the State, and the remainder are 
appointed from the citizenship at large. They serve with- 
out compensation and are empowered to inspect and re- 
quire reports not only from the ordinary public school 
system, but from educational work in schools and institu- 
tions wholly or partly supported by the State which are 
not already supervised by the public school authorities. 

The executive officer of the State school system is the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. The code gives 

(3) Act! May 18, 1911, P. L. 309. This act will subsequently be 
cited as the "School Code." 



bO STATE GOVERNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

him "supervision of all the public schools of this Com- 
monwealth, ' ' as well as a number of specific powers and 
duties. A comparison of the powers of the Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction with those of a local school 
board makes it evident that the real power and responsi- 
bility lies with the local board. The State enforces cer- 
tain minimum standards of length of term, grade of 
teaching, etc., by means of the powerful lever of the State 
appropriation, but the local school is good or bad as the 
local board makes it. 

For the purpose of running the public school system, 
the State has created a number of municipal corpora- 
tions, 4 called school districts. These are divided into 
four classes. The first class consist of those districts 
having a population of 500,000 or more, the second of 
those having a population between 30,000 and 500,000, the 
third class those having a population between 5,000 and 
30,000, and the fourth class those having a population of 
less than 5,000. The organization of the several kinds 
of districts is proportionate in elaboration to their sizes. 

The scheme of classification brings both Philadelphia 
and Pittsburgh into the same class. In order to group 
these two cities into a single class it was necessary that 
one or the other of them should learn to adapt themselves 
to a totally new form of organization, for the heterogen- 
eous way in which our school system had grown up had 
resulted in very different conditions in the two cities. 
Philadelphia had a system where the power was largely 
centralized in the hands of a Board of Education, whose 
members were not elected, but appointed by the Common 
Pleas judges. In the Pittsburgh system the central board 
was elected and a considerable amount of power was di- 
vided among the several ward boards of school directors. 
Much of the difficulty which the school code experienced 

(4) The nature of a municipal corporation is explained else- 
where — Chapter XI, q. v. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 89 

in its passage through the Legislature arose from the 
conflict between the champions of these two systems. The 
system provided by the school code is practically the 
Philadelphia system. Much objection was made by Pitts- 
burgh interests to placing the power of taxation in a 
board not elected by the people, and it was stoutly main- 
tained that to do so was unconstitutional, but this claim 
was not supported by the Court. 5 

Districts of the first class have a board of fifteen di- 
rectors appointed by the judges of the Courts of Common 
Pleas. Districts of the second class have nine directors 
who are elected at large. Districts of the third class have 
seven directors elected at large, and districts of the 
fourth class have ^.ve directors elected at large. That 
the real power in the school system lies in these local 
boards of school directors is evident for they " shall es- 
tablish, equip, furnish and maintain a sufficient number 
of elementary public schools * * * to educate every per- 
son residing in such district between the ages of six and 
twenty-one years who may attend." 6 

The school boards are also vested with the power to 
levy taxes and borrow money. 7 Since the special view- 
point from which we are depicting the State has refer- 
ence to the service it is performing for its people, it is 
interesting to note how the public school system is de- 
veloping into an instrument of social service undreamed 
of in the days when to impart the three R's was con- 
sidered the whole duty of the public educator. A mere 
catalogue of the kinds of schools the directors are per- 

(5) Minsinger vs. Rau, 236 Pa. 327. A case is now (1917) pend- 
ing in the U. S. Courts. The District Court, Western Dist. of Pa., 
held the act constitutional. Susman vs. Board of Education, 63 
Pittsburgh Legal Journal, but an appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court 
has been taken. 

(6) School Code, Art. IV, Sec. 401. 

(7) School Code, Art. V. 



90 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

mitted to maintain will illustrate this. These are, besides 
the elementary schools, 

High schools, 
Manual Training schools, 
Vocational schools, 
Domestic science schools, 
Agricultural schools, 
Evening schools, 
Kindergartens, 
Libraries, 
Museums, 
Reading rooms, 
Gymnasiums, 
Playgrounds, 

Schools for Blind, Deaf and Mentally Deficient, 
Truant schools, 
Parental schools, 
Schools for adults, 

Such other schools and educational departments as they in their 
wisdom may see proper to establish. 

The boards are also empowered 8 to permit the use of 
their school grounds and buildings for social recreation 
and other proper purposes. 

The advance in the feeling of social responsibility of 
the State towards its citizens is well illustrated by the 
provisions of the school code relating to the health and 
comfort of the children. 9 In every school built in the 
future, the total light area must equal at least twenty 
per cent, of the floor space and the light must not be ad- 
mitted from the front of the seated pupils, this to pro- 
tect the children's eyes. Every school must have not 
less than fifteen square feet of floor space and not less 
than two hundred cubic feet of air space for each pupil; 
this for the little lungs. The common or ordinary heat- 
ing stove must not be used unless it is in part enclosed 
within a shield so placed as to protect all pupils while 
seated at their desks from direct rays of heat. The 

(8) School Code, Art. VI, Sec. 627. 

(9) School Code. Sees. 618-625. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 91 

physiological effects of radiant heat are better under- 
stood now than a generation ago. Every school room 
must have ample means of ventilation (thirty cubic feet 
a minute) and must have a thermometer. Schools must 
be of fireproof construction, doors must open outward 
and fire escapes be provided. 

The executives of the school system are the superin- 
tendents. At the head is the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, a member of the State cabinet. Then there 
are County Superintendents, District Superintendents 
and Assistant County and District Superintendents. Al- 
though this would seem to create a hierarchy, as a matter 
of fact it does not, because, on account of the decentral- 
ized system of school management, the County and Dis- 
trict Superintendents are not responsible to the Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, but to the local school 
boards. 

The County Superintendents are elected by a conven- 
tion of the school directors of the several school districts 
within each county. The Assistant County Superinten- 
dents are nominated by the County Superintendents, and 
confirmed by the officers of the school directors' associa- 
tion of the county. Where a district is large enough to 
have a superintendent of its own, the directors elect one, 
but do not take part in the election of a County Superin- 
tendent. 

The State's growing sense of social responsibility 
can also be traced in its attitude towards the question of 
school attendance. Originally education was looked upon 
as a boon offered to the children of the State, too precious 
to be neglected by any that could avail themselves of it. 
Now the State exercises a general parental authority and 
requires that every child between the ages of eight and 
sixteen should go to some school. Children who have 
learned to read and write and are at work may leave 
school at fourteen. 



92 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

Perhaps the greatest extension of the State's 
social responsibility is in the medical inspection now 
required in the public schools. Here we are on the 
firing line. Nothing, except theology, seems to arouse 
such passion as medicine, and the fear of the doctor, es- 
pecially of the standard doctor, seems to be widespread. 
This provision of the law had a hard tussle to get in and 
the marks of the conflict are still visible. The act starts 
out bravely enough to say that every school district of 
the first, second and third class must provide medical in- 
spection, 10 and that the State Department of Health 
must provide it for the school districts of the fourth 
class. However, when we have mastered the several pro- 
visos we understand that school districts of the third and 
fourth class are not required to have medical inspection 
if they choose not to have it. Why such a roundabout 
method? It is evident that the commission which drafted 
the school code desired that medical inspection should be 
universal, but that the members of the Legislature repre- 
senting districts in which are located school districts of 
the third and fourth classes fought hard until they had 
succeeded in forcing in the provisos which permit indi- 
vidual districts of these classes to reject inspection if 
they see fit. As a model of legislative consistency this 
part of the code is not to be admired, since it is difficult 
to see why a city child should be compelled to submit to 
a medical inspection and a village child be exempt. How- 
ever, the law as it stands is a fairly accurate reflection of 
the state of the popular mind. In the rural districts, 
where modern ideas have not so thoroughly permeated 
and where the doctors could not be expected to attain 
to the experience of their compeers in more thickly set- 
tled areas, there has ever seemed to be a decided preju- 
dice against the medical profession. From these quar- 

(10) School Code, Sec. 1501. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



93 



ters comes the chief opposition to compulsory vaccina- 
tion. 11 

In school districts of the first class (Philadelphia and 
Pittsburgh) the Board of School Directors is known as 
i i The Board of Public Education. ' ' This is adopting the 
name familiar in Philadelphia. The ward school direc- 
tors are known under the code as school visitors. This 
change of name serves the purpose of making it clear 
that they no longer have any real power. This is a con- 
siderable change for Philadelphia, but revolutionary for 
Pittsburgh. 

Ever since mediaeval times the trend of education has 
been steadily toward the practical and the useful. The 
public schools have by no means been the last to feel 
the influence of this movement. A generation ago the 
idea was manifested mainly in the arithmetical dealings 
with barrels of flour instead of "units," and such ques- 
tions as "How many per cent, must a merchant raise his 
goods in order to reduce them ten per cent, and still make 
twenty per cent. 1 ' ' Then came the manual training de- 
partments of schools, which have done splendid work. 
High Schools also for some time have been giving com- 
mercial courses which afford direct entrance into the 
business world. The manual training courses were origi- 
nally given rather for their educational than their voca- 
tional effect. The new psychology was just beginning 
to percolate into education, and sense training was the 
battle cry. To-day the shibboleth is "Vocational Edu- 
cation." We now have as a legal definition of this ex- 
pression, "Vocational education shall mean any educa- 
tion the controlling purpose of which is to fit for possi- 
ble employment." 12 The State now encourages voca- 
tional education, and the law from which the definition 



(11) By act July 17, 1917, P. L. Any; school district may provide 
for the care and treatment of defective eyes and teeth of the pupils. 

(12) Act May 1, 1913, P. L. 138. 



94 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN" PENNSYLVANIA. 

was taken was passed for creating the necessary machin- 
ery. The machinery was increased in 1915 by the cre- 
ation of the Burean of Vocational Education in the De- 
partment of Public Education, comprising an Agricul- 
tural and an Industrial Division. 13 The same Legisla- 
ture that created the machinery lubricated it with a con- 
siderable appropriation. 14 

The idea that education should be an aid to life, and 
that most children will lead a life of economic struggle 
is at the bottom of the movement for vocational educa- 
tion, and the logical working out of this fundamental 
idea leads to the arrangement of the school hours to suit 
the workers. Evening classes are provided and also 
"part time, or continuation schools." The continuation 
school was first brought into prominence in Germany, and 
is now being generally adopted in this country. It is 
well defined in the act. "Part time or continuation class 

shall mean a vocational class for persons 

giving a part of their working time to profitable employ- 
ment, and receiving in the part time school or depart- 
ment instruction supplementary to the practical work 
carried on in such employment." 15 

The State also feels a responsibility for the quality 
of the education of those who apply for licenses to prac- 
tice the various professions. Until recently very little 
attention was paid to the preliminary education of the 
applicant, but he was passed if he could scrape through 
on the strictly technical requirements. The State has 
now created a subdepartment of the Department of Pub- 
lic Education, 16 whose duty is the "determination, evalu- 
ation, standardization and regulation of the preliminary 

(13) Act May 6, 1915, P. L. 268. 

(14) Act July 25, 1913, P. L. 1249. The benefits of Federal as- 
sistance were accepted by Act July 11, 1917, P. L. 

(15) Act May 1, 1915, P. L. 138. 

(16) Act June 19, 1911, P. L. 1045. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 95 

education, both secondary and collegiate, of those to be 
hereafter admitted to the practice of medicine, dentistry 
and pharmacy in this Commonwealth"; and other work 
along the same lines. 

Recently the control of licensing doctors has come un- 
der the Department of Education through the establish- 
ment of the Bureau of Medical Education and Licensure 
attached to the Department of Public Instruction. 17 This 
Bureau consists of seven members, two of whom, the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Commis- 
sioner of Health, hold their positions ex officio. The re- 
maining five members are appointed by the Governor. 
This recent piece of legislation supersedes the former 
method of having a separate board for the several schools 
of medicine. In order to secure impartial treatment for 
all schools, one member of the bureau must be elected 
from the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, 
one from the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State 
of Pennsylvania, and one from the Eclectic Medical So- 
ciety of the State of Pennsylvania, and it is further pro- 
vided that the two remaining shall not be of the same 
school of practice. The great advance marked by this 
single board system of medical licensure over the previ- 
ous system of separate boards is the recognition of the 
fact that a great part of modern medicine rests upon a 
thoroughly scientific basis and cannot be made the ground 
for division into schools. Thus the examinations include 
the subjects of anatomy, physiology, chemistry as ap- 
plied to medicine, hygiene and preventive medicine, path- 
ology as applied to medicine, bacteriology, symptoma- 
tology, diagnosis, surgery, gynecology, practice and ma- 
teria medica and therapeutics, and only in the subjects 
of practice, materia medica and therapeutics, is it pro- 
vided that the examination shall be given by the mem- 
bers of the bureau of the same school as the applicant. 

(17) Act June 3, 1911, P. L. 639. 



96 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

Thus, in the eye of the law at least, the several medical 
schools shrink into a single body of scientifically equipped 
physicians, who differ merely on the subjects of practice, 
materia medica and therapeutics. Perhaps an excep- 
tion to this general statement ought to be made in the 
case of osteopaths, who have an examining board of their 
own. 18 Whether osteopathy constitutes an exception 
would depend on whether it is a school of medicine, since 
the act creating the examining board carefully refrains 
from saying anything about medicine. It is probable 
that the osteopaths do not consider that their art is a 
branch of medical practice, but that it is something sui 
generis, namely, osteopathy. For a number of years 
osteopaths had a hard struggle for recognition. Until 
they had their own board the graduates of their colleges 
could not get a license to practice. From a legislative 
point of view it is a little difficult to know where to draw 
the line in the matter of creating examining boards for 
the purpose of licensing people to practice something 
which is not medicine but which professes to make peo- 
ple well of their diseases. About the same time that the 
osteopaths received recognition a bill was introduced to 
provide a separate board for naturepaths, and there are 
other somewhat similar schools who would like to be rec- 
ognized with a separate board. It would seem wiser in the 
long run to require everybody who desires a State li- 
cense permitting him to make a profession of healing, to 
know the standard fundamentals of scientific medicine 
and then to permit him to add anything he sees fit and 
call himself by whatever name he finds most satis- 
factory. There is far too much danger of a new and 
strange sounding title hiding deficiency of actual knowl- 
edge. 

On the border line is the science of optometry. The 

(18) Act March 19, 1909, P. L. 46. Act April 28, 1915, P. L. 195. 
Act June 1, 1915, P. L. 687. Act May 17, 1917, P. L. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



97 



optometrists prescribe glasses for defective vision, and, 
to do so, measure the refractive condition of the eye 
without the use of drugs. Physicians usually claim that 
this is solely the province of the oculists, and the Bureau 
of Medical Licensure at one time attempted to bring 
optometrists under its jurisdiction. After considerable 
contention, a law was passed regulating the practice of 
optometry and creating a board of Optometrical Edu- 
cation, Examination and Licensure. 19 

The matter of State supervision of the qualifications 
of those holding themselves out as competent to prac- 
tice professions is especially interesting from the point 
of view of this book. Admission to the bar has always 
been under the control of the several courts, but as the 
members of the legal profession are in fact officers of 
the court, and the court is part of the government, such 
public regulation of the qualifications of the members of 
the bar does not transcend a purely governmental func- 
tion. Now, however, the principle of public certification 
to competency is greatly extended, and it may cause sur- 
prise to learn of the number of trades and professions 
which cannot be practiced without a public certificate. 
There is medicine, as already described, and the allied 
profession of dentistry. 20 Eegulated also is the profes- 
sion of pharmacy. 21 A profession closely related to 
those of the healing arts, that of the undertakers, is also 
regulated by the State. 22 Trained nurses are now subject 
to special State regulations. 23 The State Board of Ex- 
aminers for Eegistration of Nurses is composed 
of live members, three physicians and two nurses. 
Applicants having had the required training and 



(19) Act March 30, 1917, P. L. 

(20) Act May 7, 1907, P. L. 161. 

(21) Act May 17, 1917, P. L. 

(22) Act June 7, 1895, P. L. 167. 

(23) Act May 1, 1909, P. L. 321. Act June 4, 1915, P. L. 809. 
7 



98 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

passing the required examination are entitled to 
style themselves B. N., or Eegistered Nurse. Nursing by 
others is not forbidden, but it is unlawful for anyone 
to use the title unless they have lawfully acquired it. 
Veterinary doctors are likewise licensed. 24 However, it 
does not appear that there are different schools of horse 
doctoring. 

Public accountants are subject to State regis- 
tration. 25 

"Certified public accountant" is the title those are 
permitted to assume who have shown the required fitness. 
Attempts have been made to have civil engineers sub- 
ject to State regulation, as well as architects, and per- 
sistent attempts have been made to require barbers to 
pass a State examination and take out a license. Plum- 
bers are licensed by the several cities. Mine foremen 
also are required to pass examinations, but this comes 
rather under provisions for public safety than as a cer- 
tification of fitness to practice a profession or trade. 

All these instances are simply cases where the State 
is using its power to protect its citizens. 



(24) Act May 5, 1915, P. L. 248. 

(25) Act March 29, 1899, P. L. 21. Act June 4, 1915, P. L. 839. 



CHAPTEE X. 

THE HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. 

IN Pennsylvania wild experiments in government do 
not find ready welcome, and the testing of strange 

doctrines is usually left to other communities. There- 
fore it is doubly interesting to note the steady advance 
that has taken place in the amount of direct assistance 
which the State extends to its citizens. That a govern- 
ment should do more for its people than merely keep 
them in order is indeed suggested in the Constitution. At 
the time of its adoption the public school had become a 
definitely accepted responsibility of government. The 
special advance made by the present Constitution in the 
direction of State service was the creation of the De- 
partment of Internal Affairs, though this path led to a 
dead end, as we have shown. Since the adoption of the 
Constitution the Legislature has been busily at work 
developing the idea of State usefulness, until now there 
is a complex of State agencies whose duty it is to ex- 
tend the helping hand of the State to its individual citi- 
zens. 

It would be interesting to trace the history of this 
development and observe the creation of each new 
agency and the addition of each new power, but the plan 
of this book requires that we should confine ourselves 
to a description of the finished product, the machinery of 
the State government now existing for the purpose of 
State helpfulness. 

Such machinery may be divided into three groups. 
The first includes those departments which are busied 
in lending assistance in business matters, protecting 
against business abuses and furnishing information; the 

99 



100 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

second group is charged with the preservation of the 
State resources and making them available for the use 
of the people; while the third group takes care of the 
very person of the citizen in all its parts, physical and 
moral. If we bear in mind that these distinctions are 
not absolute, that any one agency may help in any of 
these ways or all, we will find this grouping of assist- 
ance toward an understanding of the State 's activities 
in this general field. 

One of the most pervasive types of business is insur- 
ance, whether against fire or death or other calamity. 
As every mortal is sure of death and in danger of every 
other accident, the need of insurance is universal. The 
greater the need, the more, sacred is the fund which is 
accumulated as a protection against it. The insurance 
business is the field of fierce competition, and has not 
been without its scandals and disgraces, as was strik- 
ingly brought to public attention by the investigation by 
Justice Hughes before his elevation to the Supreme 
Bench of the United States. Every State has a body of 
law regulating the business of insurance, designed to 
protect the citizen from loss incident to improper ad- 
ministration of the funds and from the effects of various 
improper practices that grow up from time to time as 
a result of competition. To enforce these laws there is 
usually provision for some kind of special official. In 
Pennsylvania this duty is entrusted to the Insurance De- 
partment, 1 the head of which is the Insurance Commis- 
sioner. He is appointed by the Governor for a term of 
four years, and must be confirmed by the Senate. The 
law requires that every insurance company shall make 
annual report to the Insurance Commissioner. His an- 
nual report contains a condensation of the various re- 
ports submitted to him, and furnishes a ready means of 



(1) The Insurance Department was established by Act April 4, 
1873, P. L. 20, and reorganized by Act June 1, 1911, P. L. 607. 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. 101 

information for persons interested in knowing the con- 
dition of any particular company. 

In connection with the question, of insurance, mention 
should be made of the State Fire Marshal, 2 a new offic- 
ial. He is charged with the duty of investigating the 
origin of fires and ferreting out incendiarism, and in 
forcing the correction of conditions likely to breed fires. 
His office is organized with a Chief Assistant Fire Mar- 
shal, a First Deputy, Second Deputy, six plain deputies 
and seven assistants to the plain deputies, as well as 
clerks and stenographers. The chiefs of the fire depart- 
ments of the various municipalities and the presidents 
or chairmen of the boards of supervisors of the townships 
are also, by virtue of their offices, assistants to the State 
Fire Marshal. 

Very similar to the Insurance Department is the 
Banking Department, 3 which watches over the money of 
the people entrusted to financial institutions. Of course, 
the national banks are beyond his jurisdiction, but all 
banks doing business under a charter from the State, as 
well as trust companies, and all private banks, are under 
his care. While the Banking Department cannot abso- 
lutely prevent the failure of financial institutions, the 
steady pressure of its examinations and criticisms, and 
the occasional exercise of its more drastic powers have 
done wonders in preserving the stability of our banking 
business. Of especial value has been its fostering care 
of the building and loan associations. These powerful 
instruments of co-operative saving were introduced from 
England in early times, took root first in Pennsylvania 
soil, and have flourished here mightily. Their success is 
due to the fact that they appeal to the soundest instincts 
of humanity and that their machinery is skillfully 

(2) Act June 3, 1911, P. L. 658. 

(3) Created by Act June. 8, 1891, P. L. 217 and strengthened by 
Act February 11, 1895, P. L. 4. 



102 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

adapted to the psychology of the people who are their 
patrons. Each member is required to make a payment 
every month on account of his subscription to stock under 
compulsion of a relatively heavy fine. The money paid 
in is loaned each month to the member bidding the high- 
est premium, and he is required to give real estate secur- 
ity therefor, probably the house which the loan enables 
him to buy. On this loan he pays interest, also monthly. 
The fines, premiums and interest all go into the funds to 
be loaned, so that they are compounded over and over, 
and the net result is a profit far beyond that which can 
ordinarily be obtained from investments so completely 
secured. Thus the twofold benefit is obtained of a safe 
and remunerative investment for regular savings, and a 
source of supply for borrowings in home buying which 
is more adapted to the needs of the average person than 
are the greater financial institutions. The State has long 
recognized the social utility of the building and loan as- 
sociations and has fostered them by exemption from tax- 
ation. They are the special wards of the Banking De- 
partment, which examines them at intervals without no- 
tice. This examination, together with the cautious man- 
agement which usually characterizes the associations, has 
made them safe and failure is rare. 4 

Another business which the State particularly fos- 
ters is the fundamental industry of agriculture, which 
is of great importance in Pennsylvania, notwithstanding 
the State's reputation for mining and manufacturing. 
The prosperity of this large industry is of peculiar in- 
terest to the State because the price of the necessaries 
of life for every citizen is largly controlled by the amount 
of agricultural production. Another reason for the 
State 's interesting itself in agriculture is the fact that the 

(4) The total assets of the Building and Loan Associations in 
the State now (1917) amount to over three hundred million dollars, 
ef. Report of the Banking Commissioner for 1916. 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. 103 

business can be advanced by discoveries and experiments 
which are impossible for the various farmers to make 
for themselves. Through the dissemination of such in- 
formation the individual farmers are able to compete 
with capitalistic combinations, and to maintain their in- 
dependence. 

For fostering farm production the State has created 
the Commission of Agriculture. 5 The chief officer is the 
Secretary of Agriculture, holding his commission at the 
pleasure of the Governor. 

The Chief of the Bureau of Statistics in the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture is called the Statistician. His. work 
is of assistance to all the other bureaus and to the public 
generally in gathering and compiling information. 

The Dairy and Food Bureau has charge of the en- 
forcement of the pure food laws. These are of personal 
importance to the individual citizen, because they involve 
health and life itself, yet on account of the technical skill 
needed in securing evidence of violations, the enforce- 
ment of these acts cannot be left to the injured party as 
is usually done with other penal laws. Pennsylvania citi- 
zens are now protected by the federal pure food laws, 
which govern interstate shipments, as well as by the 
State pure food laws. 

The Bureau of Economic Zoology has charge of a de- 
partment where the advantage of the power of the State 
exercised for the assistance of the individual is particu- 
larly apparent. The depredations of the abounding insect 
life are astonishing, and were there no checks on its 
multiplication, the world would soon be devoid of other 
life. Not only do the well known insect pests need con- 
tinual watching and destruction, but new and strange dis- 
eases frequently appear which, on expert examination, 
prove to be the result of the activities of some hitherto 
unknown parasite. Before such a visitation the individ- 

(5) Act May 18, 1915, P. L. 541. 



104 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

ual farmer would stand helpless, but with the expert 
knowledge of the State Economic Zoologist at his ser- 
vice he is put in possession of every known means of de- 
fense. The Economic Zoologist has charge of the en- 
forcement of the laws regarding the inspection of nursery 
stock for insect pests and plant diseases, and enforces 
the act providing for the inspection of apiaries and for 
the suppression of contagious and infectious diseases 
among bees. 

The Bureau of Chemistry places at the disposal of 
the department the expert chemical knowledge which is 
necessary in nearly all its work. 

The Division of Veterinary Science supplies the 
knowledge and service necessary in the barnyard depart- 
ment of the farmers' work. The State Veterinarian is 
at the head of this division. 

Beyond what the State is doing for the farmers, as 
just described, a recent act 6 has extended the idea of 
direct State helpfulness probably farther than ever be- 
fore in this State. Under its provisions the Secretary 
of Agriculture appoints ten "special instructors in the 
science of agriculture and demonstrators of approved 
agricultural methods." These instructors are located at 
different points throughout the State so that no farmer 
is any great distance away from one. If things now go 
wrong with a farmer and he fails to get the results he 
should, instead of puzzling over books or written replies 
from the department, he can have the instructor look 
over his. farm and tell him what is the matter. It is sig- 
nificant of the trend of the times that one of the instruc- 
tors appointed was a woman, who was directed to take up 
the subject of home sanitation and household economics. 

A recent addition to the machinery of the Department 
of Agriculture is the Bureau of Markets. 7 

(6) May 14, 1913, P. L. 203. 

(7) Aet July 17, 1917, P. L. 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. 105 

The Department of Agriculture also holds farmers ' 
institutes from time to time. These are gatherings of 
farmers for mutual instruction and are under the special 
direction of the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. 

The Department of Agriculture with its various bur- 
eaus is by no means all the machinery of the State for 
the benefit 1 of the farmers. In addition there are the 
State Livestock Sanitary Board and the extensive agri- 
cultural work of the Pennsylvania State College. The 
State Livestock Sanitary Board is officered by the Secre- 
tary of Agriculture and his bureau chiefs, and it is not 
easy to understand why a separate board distinct from 
the department, was created. However, the State Live- 
stock Sanitary Board is a distinct entity and is highly 
organized. It has a president, vice-president, treasurer, 
secretary and assistant secretary and a clerical force; a 
meat hygiene division with a director and ten agents ; a 
horse breeding division with a director and assistant; a 
division of transmissible diseases with a director; a di- 
vision of milk hygiene with a director ; a laboratory with 
a director and eight assistants and a milk hygiene labora- 
tory with a director and associate ; an auditing division, 
two agents in charge of substations, a farm fore- 
man, and seventeen field agents. This board is 
charged with the duty of preventing animal epidemics, 
and frequently, when the foot and mouth disease or other 
epidemic is abroad, it has a difficult task. The Board 
has power to condemn and kill infected livestock (for 
which the State reimburses the owner) and to regulate 
conditions generally which bear on the transmission of 
animal disease. 

As a connecting link between the farmers and the 
State, there has been created the State board of Agricul- 
ture. 8 Its members are of ^ve classes : (1) Those who 
are members ex officio, consisting of the Governor, Secre- 
(8) Act May 8, 1876, P. L. 129. 



106 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

tary of Internal Affairs, Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, President of State College, Auditor General 
and Secretary of Agriculture; (2) two members appoint- 
ed by the Governor; (3) one member appointed by the 
Pennsylvania State Poultry Society; (4) one mem- 
ber appointed by the Pennsylvania Bee Keepers ' Asso- 
ciation; and (5) one member appointed by each of the 
County Agricultural Associations. Seventeen consult- 
ing specialists in as many different subjects are con- 
nected with the Board. Such a large body, of course, 
cannot meet frequently nor be an executive body, but it 
serves to gather and disseminate much necessary infor- 
mation and to keep the resources of the State constantly 
at the service of the farmer. 

We are all interested in the success of the farmer be- 
cause we live upon his products, but there are other busi- 
ness enterprises of widespread public interest and these, 
too, are watched over by the State. One of the most 
striking changes which the advancing invention and in- 
creasing population have wrought in the nineteenth cen- 
tury is the now almost total dependence of the people 
upon public service corporations. Where once people drew 
their water from wells they now obtain it from a water 
corporation, public or private. Where once they drove 
in a private wagon or carriage now they ride and have 
their goods transported in a railway. Where once they 
wrote a note now they telephone. Where once they lit 
a candle now they turn on the gas or electricity. The 
distinguishing characteristic of public service corpora- 
tions is that they must have a monopoly. Competition 
has been tried and has proved a failure. Costly duplica- 
tions of plant result in no advantage to the consumer, 
except through reduction of rates brought about by cut- 
throat rate wars, and these always end either in a res- 
toration of the rate or in the consolidation of the com- 
panies and the consequent effort to recoup from the peo- 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. ■ 107 

pie all that had been given them in the time of competi- 
tion. On the other hand, however, before unregulated 
monopoly the individual citizen is helpless. No matter 
what the law might be, no private citizen could afford to 
pursue a public service company through the maze of liti- 
gation that would be required to enforce his rights in 
the matter of rates, and more particularly in the matter 
of standards of service. Therefore the people need some 
strong protagonist, armed not only with power but also 
with skill to investigate, with wisdom to understand, with 
firmness to enforce and with restraint not to oppress. 
Such a protagonist the Public Service Commission is in- 
tended to be. The idea did not originate in Pennsylvania. 
Massachusetts set the fashion with a Railway Commis- 
sion, which, however, had little power except to investi- 
gate. The great example is the Interstate Commerce 
Commission of the United States. Since so much of 
the traffic of the country is interstate, the United States 
Commission has jurisdiction over a large part of the 
railroad business in the United States. Still there is 
enough railroad business that is purely within the bounds 
of the State to make State regulation necessary. Many 
States had railroad commissions before Pennsylvania, 
and the first step here was taken in 1907 when the Pail- 
road Commission was inaugurated. 9 This body had 
hardly time to prove what it could do before the rising 
tide of demand for more State activity, characteristic of 
the year 1912, resulted in the establishment of the Pub- 
lic Service Commission. 10 The Public Service Com- 
mission is a body of similar nature to the Railroad Com- 
mission which it displaced, but of vastly greater scope. 
As its name implies, it has control not only over rail- 
ways, or other common carriers, but also over all forms 
of public service corporations. It consists of seven com- 

(9) Act May 31, 1907, P. L. 337. 

(10) Act July 26, 1913, P. L. 1374. 



108 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

missioners, appointed for ten years, with their terms so 
arranged that the term of bnt one member expires in any 
one year. Thus the commission could not be packed sud- 
denly for a particular purpose. One of the commission- 
ers is designated by the Governor as the Chairman. The 
Attorney General is ex-officio the general counsel of the 
commission, but he appoints two lawyers as counsel and 
assistant counsel who do the active legal work. The 
Commission itself appoints a secretary, an investigator 
of accidents and a marshal and other assistants, its carte 
blanche in this direction, of course, being controlled by 
the amount of the appropriation at its disposal. 

An administrative commission is a body that is some- 
what anomalous in our ways of doing things. It is not 
a court, but it acts in many ways like one, for it has hear- 
ings, decides questions of fact, and makes decisions, yet 
these decisions are not judgments, and if they transgress 
any law or are confiscatory in effect, they can be upset 
by a court. It differs most from a court in that it is 
active itself in the matters before it. The Commission 
is the State in the act of regulating the service corpora- 
tions and it does not at all confine itself to deciding 
between litigants, as does a court, but itself moves to 
find out what is wrong and to make it right. The act 
creating the Commission and regulating the public ser- 
vice corporations is very broad and inclusive and vests 
ample power in the Commission. If, hereafter, these cor- 
porations are not effectively regulated, it will be the fault 
of the personnel of the Commission rather than of the 
legislation under which they act. 

The second of the groups into which we have divided 
the helpful activities of the State is that which has to 
do with conservation. In the past, Pennsylvania's rich 
resources have been ruthlessly exploited with little 
thought for the people who were to come after. It is 
a melancholy sight when traveling through the mountain 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. 109 

regions of the State to view the millions of acres of bar- 
ren slopes where once the patriarchal pine and hemlock 
held undisputed sway. Only gradually did Pennsyl- 
vania awake to the necessity of preserving its timber 
wealth, though in comparison to other States it was 
early in the field. The first tentative step, taken in 1893, 
was the creation of a Forestry Commission. 11 Out of 
this grew the Division of Forestry in the Department of 
Agriculture, 12 and finally the work came to be considered 
of sufficient importance to warrant the establishment of 
a department all to itself. 13 The department is organ- 
ized with a Commissioner at the head, a Deputy Commis- 
sioner and a clerical force. Associated with the depart- 
ment, and together with the Commissioner of Forestry 
forming the State Forestry Reservation Commission, 
are four citizens appointed by the Governor. These four 
members are not paid for their services. The larger 
questions of forest conservation are decided by the Com- 
mission, and the detail management and execution of 
these plans are in the hands of the Commissioner of For- 
estry. Under the supervision of the Department of For- 
estry the State has entered into an extensive scheme of 
forest preservation. Waste land has been steadily ac- 
quired until the total area so dedicated to forestry re- 
serve amounts to about a million acres. This land is 
reforested by protecting natural growth, 14 and by set- 
ting out seedling trees. The Department maintains nur- 
series for the growing of seedlings and will distribute 
these young trees, under proper regulation, to those who 

(11) Act May 23, 1893, P. L. 115. 

(12) Act March 13, 1895, P. L. 17. 

(13) Act February 25, 1901, P. L. 11. 

(14) The great problem in forestry work is the protection of 
the forest area against fire. The legislature had recognized this by 
creating a Bureau of Forest Protection in the Department of Forestry 
with wide powers. Act June 3, 1915, P. L. 797. 



110 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

will plant and take care of them. Another way in which 
the State will assist the private tree owners directly is 
to send district foresters who will assist them in the care 
of small areas of woodland, including shade and orna- 
mental trees. 

One of the conditions which for many years tended 
to prevent private reforestation was the custom of 
assessing forest land for taxation on the basis of its tim- 
ber value. Thus, if a man planted trees for cutting fifty 
years hence, he would have to pay increasing taxes dur- 
ing the whole time he was waiting' for the profit. Human 
nature is hardly equal to this, so the natural consequence 
followed. Either the timber was cut when immature, or 
the land left untended, a prey to axe and fire. This con- 
dition was remedied in 1913 when the group of Auxiliary 
Forest Reserve laws was passed. 15 Under these laws 
forest lands in private possession can be classified as aux- 
iliary forest reserves. Thus they are brought under the 
care of the department to a certain extent, but the most 
important effect is to postpone taxation upon them until 
the timber is harvested. In order to prevent hardship 
to townships and school districts within which auxiliary 
forest reserves may be located, a special charge of two 
cents an acre for the benefit of schools and two cents for 
roads is placed on these reserves and is paid by the State, 
as is also done in the case of the regular forest reserves. 

Another provision for enlarging the area of protected 
forests is the encouragement given to municipalities to 
establish their own forest reserves. 16 This policy has 
proved very profitable in Europe, and doubtless will here 
in due time. 

As the State forest reserves belong to the people it 
is fitting that they should yield their fullest use to the 



(15) Act June 5, 1913, P. L. 405. Act June 5, 1913, P. L. 426. 
Act June 5, 1913, P. L. 408. 

(16) Act April 22, 1909, P. L. 124. 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. Ill 

citizen. So it is provided that the Department of For- 
estry may lease sites for camps and bungalows at nom- 
inal rates. This opportunity is not yet fully known to 
the people and will doubtless in time spread the bless- 
ings of woods life to multitudes. 

The protection of the forests, while primarily under- 
taken for the conservation of the timber supply, has also 
a striking number of important collateral benefits. First 
of all comes the preservation of the water supply. For a 
long time Pennsylvania seemed satisfied to let its waters 
get along as best they might, but the last decade has 
brought a full recognition of the importance of the 
State's streams to the welfare of its inhabitants. To 
protect these streams and to study the problems in con- 
nection with them, the State has created the Water Sup- 
ply Commission. 17 It is composed of five members, three 
of whom are appointed by the Governor. The other mem- 
bers are the Commissioner of Forestry and the Commis- 
sioner of Health. The linking of these two commission- 
ers reveals the recognition of the close connection be- 
tween the conservation of the water supply and the for- 
ests on one hand, and the public health on the other. No 
water company whether for the distribution of water or 
the use of it as power, may now be incorporated or use 
any of the waters of the State without the consent of the 
Water Supply Commission. This Commission is mak- 
ing a thorough survey of all the streams in the State, and 
the interest of the public in its waters is now being 
watched. Another benefit of forestry conservation 
is the protection and propagation of fish and game. 
Owing to the savage that still remains in each of 
us, the question of the fish and game supply always 
assumes . considerable importance. It is surprising 
what a large amount of legislation is continually 

(17) Act May 4, 1905, P. L..385. 



112 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

enacted on the subject of fish and game. 18 To a 
certain extent fish and game, but particularly fish, is 
an economic question. Such food fishes as the shad in 
the Delaware and Susquehanna and the white fish in Lake 
Erie have an important relation to the food supply of 
the State, but the chief interest in the fish and game sup- 
ply of the State centers around the question of sports- 
manship. For the preservation of the fish supply and 
the stocking of the various waters of the Commonwealth 
the Department of Fisheries has been created. 19 At the 
head of the department is the Commissioner of Fisher- 
ies, and with him four other citizens of the Common- 
wealth, who, together, constitute the Fisheries Commis- 
sion. The members of the Commission are appointed by 
the Governor. The Commission maintains a number of 
hatcheries at different points in the State and has done 
much to restore the waters of the State to a condition 
where fishermen may gain more than patience. Anyone 
who is interested in the piscatorial art and desires to 
exercise it without leaving the State should communi- 
cate with the Department of Fisheries, where he will get 
much valuable information. 

The game of the State also has a special branch of. 
the government for its protection, called the Board of 
Game Commissioners. 20 This Board serves without com- 
pensation. Its secretary and active executive official is 
known as the Chief Game Protector. Besides him there 
are sixty 21 persons known as Game Protectors, and the 
Board may appoint in each county one Deputy 
Game Protector. It is the duty of the Board to 
protect and preserve the songbirds and the game, 

(18) The regulations are changed at nearly; every session of the 
legislature. The latest Act is June 7, 1917, P. L. 

(19) Act April 2, 1903, P. L. 128. 

(20) Act June 25, 1895, P. L. 273. 

(21) Act April 22, 1915, P. L. 168. 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. 113 

and insectivorous birds and mammals of the 
State, and in general to enforce the game laws. 
There is an astonishing amount of legislation com- 
ing under the head of game laws and no one should at- 
tempt to play the part of a sportsman in the State with- 
out securing from the department a small volume in 
which the laws are collected. For a number of years one 
of the subjects of most lively discussion in the Legisla- 
ture was the question whether hunters should be licensed. 
In the session of 1913 the advocates of this measure pre- 
vailed. 22 Accordingly, before it is safe to go hunting- 
it is necessary for the would-be Nimrod to visit the office 
of the County Treasurer and pay one dollar. He then 
receives a license, and a tag which bears the license num- 
ber in figures at least one inch in height. This tag the 
licensee must wear on the back of the sleeve between the 
elbow and the shoulder. The revenue derived from the 
sale of these licenses may be used only for the further- 
ance of game protection and propagation. For this rea- 
son the hunters do not feel that they are losing their 
dollar. 

Another department of the State government which 
is busied about the natural resources of the State is the 
Geologic and Topographic Survey Commission. 23 This 
Commission co-operates with the United States Geologi- 
cal Survey in the preparation of a contour topographic 
and geologic survey and map of the State. Its reports 
and surveys are of great interest in the mining indus- 
tries. 

An activity of the State which may well be grouped 
with conservation is the maintenance of highways. It is 
only in recent years that the economic value of usable 
roads has been thoroughly appreciated, and the automo- 

(22) Act April 17, 1913, P. L. 85. Non-residents are covered by 
Act May 3, 1917, P. L. 

(23) Act April 28, 1899, P. L. 95. Act July 18, 1901, P. L. 720. 
8 



114 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

bile lias given a stimulus to the good roads movement 
without which it would have been much delayed. The 
State Highway Department was created in 1903. 24 In 
1911 the Department was reorganized and greatly ex- 
tended. 25 At the same time a comprehensive system of 
State highways was provided for. There is also a sys- 
tem of State aid highways, in the construction of which 
the State co-operates with the counties and townships 
and boroughs, the State paying half of the expense and 
the county and township each one-quarter. The main- 
tenance of the road is divided between the State and the 
township or borough in which the road may lie. The 
State has gone into the road-making business on a very 
large scale. Besides the State Highway Commissioner, 
there are two Deputy Commissioners, a Chief Engineer, 
an Assistant Engineer, fifteen Civil Engineers, to act as 
assistants to the Chief Engineer, fifty Superintendents 
of Highways and a large office force. 20 This department 
has charge of licensing automobiles, and the license fee, 
although paid into the State treasury, is specifically ap- 
propriated for the use of the Highway Department. 27 

The physical resources of the State are not all that 
require conservation. The State abounds in an intangi- 
ble resource whose chief value lies in the stimulation of 
patriotism. This resource consists of the places where 
historic memories cling. The State has never been un- 
mindful of the value of these locations, and has been 
steadily appropriating money for monuments and mark- 

(24) Act April 15, 1903, P.L. 188. 

(25) Act May 31, 1911, P. L. 468. 

(26) Act July 16, 1917, P. L. creates a Bureau of Town- 
ship Highways in the State Highway Department. 

(27) By Act of Congress approved July 11, 1916 the U. S. 
Government extends aid in the construction of rural post roads to 
States which will co-operate. Pennsylvania accepted this aid by Act 
April 5, 1917, P. L. 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. 115 

ers. The task of discriminating among the various appli- 
cants and then spending the money for this purpose 
wisely has been growing more and more difficult, while 
at the same time the physical remains of historic facts 
which have not been marked or cared for have been stead- 
ily disappearing. In order that the State might act 
wisely in its care of historic places, a commission has 
been appointed, called the Pennsylvania Historical Com- 
mission, 28 consisting of five citizens of the Commonwealth 
appointed by the Governor. This Commission has the 
duty of marking and preserving the places where his- 
toric events have occurred, the restoration of historic 
public buildings, military works or monuments, and of 
co-operating with municipalities or historical associa- 
tions in the same kind of work. Together with the Gov- 
ernor, Auditor General and State Treasurer the members 
of the Commission constitute a body of trustees author- 
ized to accept on behalf of the Commonwealth, and to 
care for, gifts which may be made for the endowment of 
its work. 

The third group of the State's machinery for help- 
fulness is that which is charged with the direct improve- 
ment of the individual himself, in his mind, body and 
behavior. 

The chief of the agencies used to this end is the pub- 
lic school system with all of its ramifications, to which 
we have already devoted a chapter. Next in importance 
come the charitable activities of the State, including the 
number of State hospitals for the insane and other un- 
fortunates, and the State's large appropriations to pri- 
vately managed charities. Of these, together with the 
Board of Public Charities, we have already spoken. 

The Department of Health 29 is one of the biggest 
single pieces of machinery which the State maintains for 

(28) Act July 25, 1913, P. L. 1265. 

(29) Act April 27, 1905, P. L. 312. 



116 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

the assistance of its citizens. The department is organ- 
ized with a Commissioner of Health at the head, and 
an advisory board of six, the majority of whom mnst 
be physicians, and one of whom mnst be a civil engin- 
neer. In addition to a considerable office force there 
is a chief and an associate medical inspector and an 
assistant chief medical inspector, a medical inspector in 
each connty except Philadelphia (which has its own 
Department of Public Health and Charities), seven hun- 
dred township health officers, a large force in the Bnrean 
of Vital Statistics, another full complement in the lab- 
oratories and experimental stations, and a large number 
of employees in the various sanatoria and dispensaries. 
The department maintains three sanatoria for tubercu- 
losis patients, number one at Mont Alto, where about 
one thousand patients are being cared for, number two 
at Cresson where there are about three hundred and 
fifty patients, and number three at Hamburg which has 
just been completed. Besides these sanatoria there are 
a large number of dispensaries located in all parts of 
the State for the purpose of giving out treatment to 
tubercular patients. Diphtheria antitoxin is distributed 
by the Department of Health through six hundred and 
sixty-seven different agencies, and tetanus antitoxin 
through sixty-eight distributories. The State Depart- 
ment of Health has gone about its duties in a very large 
way and has been liberally supported by the Legisla- 
ture. It has general control over the waters of 
the State and the sewage systems of all the mu- 
nicipalities. 30 The department has been persistent- 
ly at work supervising extensions to sewage sys- 
tems under the power given it by the act com- 
pelling the introduction of modern sanitary systems 
by municipalities. Philadelphia has been experimenting 
for a number of years under the supervision of the de- 

(30) Act April 22, 1905, P. L. 260. 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE 117 

partment, and only recently has decided upon a com- 
prehensive system of sewage disposal. This, when in 
full operation, will remove from the waters of the rivers 
the great mass of sewage which is now so injurious to 
the health and comfort of the citizens. 

No fair description of the activities of the Depart- 
ment of Health could be given without some mention 
of its work in catastrophic emergencies. On the after- 
noon of Saturday, April 30, 1911, the great concrete dam 
at Austin gave way and the waters overwhelmed the 
town with great loss of life. Saturday afternoon is not 
a favorable time for governmental action to begin, but 
the wires throughout the State were soon humming with 
orders and the Commissioner himself hastened to the 
spot. The report of the Commissioner for 1911, cover- 
ing this occurrence and including the report of the chief 
engineer, provides a splendid manual of practical in- 
structions for relief work in emergencies. The more 
recent flood at Erie also found the Department of Health 
not wanting. 

Another agency of the State which is always to be 
found on hand when there is trouble is the State Police. 
Every body politic worthy of existence must have some 
means of enforcing respect for its decrees. Owing to 
the inherited antipathy of Americans to a standing army 
our States have been singularly ill provided with means 
for protecting their own sovereignty. Local police forces 
have been familiar, but the State at large has been help- 
less to carry out its decrees unless it call upon the militia. 
This is a very expensive proceeding. It is well known 
that a small number of highly disciplined men are more 
effective than a much larger number poorly disciplined 
and inexperienced. Pennsylvania was the first State to 
adopt the idea of providing State police. They are not 
in any sense a standing army, but are a body of men em- 
ployed by the State to enforce its laws and preserve the 



118 STATE GOVEEXMEXT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

peace. In times of disaster they are usually first on the 
ground, and bring to the stricken community the encour- 
aging assurance of the State's care and protection. 

We include the Department of Mines in the group of 
State activities busied with the direct improvement of 
the condition of the citizens, because its chief energies 
are expended in protecting the health and lives of the 
men in the mines. There is a large body of law relat- 
ing to the safety of the operation of the many mines, 
particularly coal mines, in the State, and the chief duty 
of the Department of Mines is to make continual inspec- 
tions to insure that the law is obeyed. This department 
was created in 1903, superseding the Bureau of Mines 
in the Department of Internal Affairs. 31 Subject to the 
Department of Mines are numerous mine inspectors 
throughout the various coal regions of the State. A curi- 
ous extension of democracy is found in the fact that the 
mine inspectors in anthracite coal regions are elected by 
the voters of the several inspection districts. 32 

A further development of the conceptions of the 
State as a direct aid to its citizens is nowhere better il- 
lustrated than in the creation of the Department of Labor 
and Industry. 33 This department, in the first place, has 
care of the health and safety of the citizens of the Com- 
monwealth employed in industry by reason of its duty of 
enforcing the various factory laws of the State. It also 
acts as a physician for the industry of the State by di- 
rectly taking a hand in the symptoms of industrial ill- 
ness knoAvn as strikes and lock-outs.. This department 
of the work is in charge of the Bureau of Mediation and 
Arbitration. The department is kept in touch with the 
non- official part of the Commonwealth by means of the 

(31) Act April 14, 1903, P. L. 180. 

(32) Acts June 8. 1901, P. L. 535; May 3, 1905, P. L. 363; May 
3. 1909, P. L. 420 ; May 5, 1911, P. L. 120. 

(33) Act June 2. 1913, P. L, 396. 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. 119 

industrial board which, in addition to the Commissioner 
of Labor and Industry, consists of four members, ap- 
pointed by the Governor, one of whom must be an em- 
ployer of labor, one a wage earner and one a woman. 
Presumably the fourth member is to represent Mr. Com- 
mon People, so that every interest likely to be affected 
by industrial disturbance has a representative upon the 
board. It is to be hoped that Mr. Common People's 
representative will be very able and active, since his con- 
stituents are those who in the long run bear the brunt 
of industrial maladjustment. 

By recent legislation the department has been given 
the duty of establishing a State Employment Bureau. 34 
Foreign countries have far surpassed this country in 
carrying out the idea that the State ought to assist its 
citizens in finding employment. It is always a public 
misfortune when citizens with skill and strength are 
unable to use them in earning a livelihood, and since the 
value of an employment agency grows in direct ratio 
with its scope, it is proper that the business of finding 
employment should be a State activity, even a State 
monopoly, although the laws at present do not contem- 
plate going so far. They simply require registration 
and licensing on behalf of private bureaus in order that 
the State may keep them in proper control. 35 

One of the most recent and most important duties 
laid upon the State Department of Labor and Industry 
is the part which it plays in the operation of the new 
Workmen's Compensation Act. 36 The question of em- 
ployers' liability and workmen's compensation is ex- 
tremely complicated and intricate, but the needs and suf- 
fering of the workmen in connection with industrial ac- 
cidents usually reduce themselves to a very simple ques- 

(34) Act June 4, 1915, P. L. 833. 

(35) Act June 7, 1915, P. L. 888. 

; ' (36) Act June 2, 1915, P. L. 736. Act June 2, 1915, P. L. 762. 



120 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

tion for the injured operative. He sees it usually as a 
matter of sudden injury or industrial disease wherein he 
loses his means of livelihood. On the part of the State the 
question appears pressing, because annually thousands 
of industrious citizens are rendered incapable of further 
supporting themselves or their dependents, and in con- 
sequence the State and local charitable organizations 
are put to great expense. Dependents brought up by 
public charity are seldom as effective citizens as those 
brought up in a normal way in a family. To the em- 
ployer the question usually presents itself in the light 
of the expense to which he is put in defending lawsuits, 
the totally unpredictable amount of liability which he 
may be under during any one year on account of acci- 
dents for which he may be held liable, and the 
drain on his sympathies when he realizes that only an 
extremely small percentage of his injured employees may 
expect to receive anything in the way of damages. On 
the other hand, if he made a general provision for all 
who were injured in his employ, he would find competi- 
tion with other employers in the same line of business 
impossible. Workmen's compensation is a scheme which 
obviates the difficulty from the point of view of all three 
parties interested. It proceeds upon the theory that 
modern industry has produced a condition where the vast 
bulk of the accidents are due rather to the risk of the 
employment than to the fault of anybody in particular, 
and that it would be a wise public policy to have every 
workman assured of some compensation in case of acci- 
dent, entirely apart from the question as to who was 
negligent. At one fell swoop this method cuts off and 
saves to the community almost the whole of the great 
burden of expensive litigation which hitherto preceded 
the distribution of whatever amount actually was col- 
lected for injured workmen. It is, of course, highly 
advantageous to workmen themselves, except that the 



HELPING HAND OF THE STATE. 121 

schedules of payment under the act while certain, are 
uniformly smaller than a workman might possibly col- 
lect in case he won a successful suit for damages under 
the old system. From the point of view of the employer 
there is substituted a definite liability each year in the 
insurance premium which he is now practically compelled 
to carry and which is borne equally by himself and all 
his competitors in the State, and, since surrounding 
States are rapidly adopting similar laws, is also paid by 
his competitors in the other States. Thus the burden is 
spread over the whole community, where it would rest 
eventually at any rate. But, instead of being paid by 
the community to the courts, almshouses and orphan 
asylums, it is paid directly to the man injured, enab- 
ling him to maintain a normal family life for the upbring- 
ing of his children. 

Having now traced the activities of the State in the 
furthering of the business interests of the citizens, the 
preservation of the resources of the State for his benefit 
and the actual care of the State for the person of the 
citizen, we have but to mention the single instance where 
the State directly supervises the moral interests of the 
citizen. This is done by the establishment of the State 
Board of Censors for moving picture films. 37 

The brief description given in this chapter of the 
various activities of the State for the immediate benefit 
of the citizens will serve to indicate how far advanced 
we are along the road to State helpfulness. It cannot be 
supposed that the tendency in this direction will be 
checked, and in future days the State will probably do 
many things that now are considered outside the scope of 
government. 



(37) Act May 15, 1915, P. L. 534. Amended Act May, 10, 1917, 
P. L. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE C0I7BTS. 



cc /^\ OINGr to Court" is the most definite description 
I "W" which many citizens could give of any piece of 
business which involves contact with judicial 
machinery. It is not surprising that there should be a 
great deal of confusion of mind about the organization 
of our courts and the structure of our judicial system, 
because the subject is technical and involved, and because 
most of us can go through life without much need for 
knowledge of it. If we do have need of the court, we 
employ professional assistants and take the advice of 
our lawyers. The whole matter might be relegated to the 
legal profession were it not for the fact that questions 
intimately concerning the courts are constantly coming 
up for popular decision, either in the Legislature or 
directly by the people in constitutional amendments. For 
this reason citizens should be equipped with some knowl- 
edge of the general structure of our judicial system, the 
place in that system of the various courts, and the in- 
fluences at work tending toward a modification of it. 

While there are striking differences between the ju- 
dicial systems of the several States, there are certain 
broad features in which they are all alike. There is in 
every State a court of last resort which hears matters 
brought to it by appeal from the lower tribunals. There 
are always local courts to which cases are brought in 
the first place, called courts of original jurisdiction. And 
then there are various kinds of local courts of very limited 
jurisdiction to settle matters too petty to be brought be- 
fore the regular courts. In describing Pennsylvania's 
system, we shall keep this threefold division in view and 
shall begin with the lowest. 
122 



THE COUKTS. 123 

In Pennsylvania the lowest official belonging to the 
judiciary goes under various names in different parts of 
the State. Throughout the rural districts he is known 
as a justice of the peace. This name is historically the 
most correct, and links him with his line of succession, 
as will shortly be pointed out. In other parts of the 
State, notably in Pittsburgh, he is known as an alderman, 
and in Philadelphia the same official appears under the 
name of magistrate. This difference of name is not due 
to the caprice of local nomenclature, but to that of the 
statutory draftsmen who have drawn the several acts 
regulating these minor judicial officers in the various 
municipal divisions of the State. There are certain slight 
differences in jurisdiction between justices of the peace, 
aldermen and magistrates, the most important of which 
is the fact that justices of the peace and aldermen have 
jurisdiction in civil cases to the amount of three hundred 
dollars, while magistrates are limited in their jurisdic- 
tion to one hundred dollars. Apart from this there is 
no difference of sufficient importance to warrant a dis- 
cussion here. 

These minor officials are direct descendants of the 
English justices of the peace. At the time we copied 
our institution from England, the justices of the peace 
or petty magistrates were exclusively of the local gentry, 
the men best fitted by their training, and particularly by 
their standing in the community, for the work of com- 
posing local quarrels and punishing minor delinquencies. 
In that day and in such a society the institution was 
natural and effective, but when transplanted to our 
shores and placed among the vastly changed conditions 
of the present day it has broken down. There are three 
distinct characteristics of the court held by the justice 
of the peace. In the first place it is a court of limited jur- 
isdiction, that is to say, it can deal with only certain 
classes of cases and also it cannot consider cases which 



124 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

involve questions whose money value is more than a cer- 
tain limited amount. In the second place, it is not "a 
court of record." This does not mean that the justice 
keeps no docket or other notes of what he has done, but 
it means that his notes and dockets are not court records 
in the sense in which that term is used throughout the 
law. In the third place, justices of the peace are not re- 
quired to be, and as a matter of fact seldom are, members 
of the bar. 

The exact limitation of a justice 's jurisdiction and the 
fact that his court is not a court of record, are technical 
matters of no importance in this general sketch, but the 
fact that the justices of the. peace are not trained to the 
law is a matter of vital import to every citizen and con- 
sequently needs some discussion here. 

Two general lines of argument are frequently urged 
to justify setting up untrained men in judgment over 
their neighbors. The first is based on the idea that since 
the matters which come before this tribunal are unim- 
portant it is a matter of no importance what kind of an 
incumbent holds the office. The second line of argument 
is based on a very deep-rooted idea that a justice of the 
peace should be a man of the people, and that any kind 
of training, especially legal training, separates a man 
from the general mass and makes him out of sympathy 
with them. Both of these ideas are distressing mistakes, 
and have worked much evil in the Commonwealth. While 
it is true that the jurisdiction of the magistrate is limi- 
ted, it is not true that the issues within their jurisdic- 
tion are unimportant. They deal with the business mat- 
ters of the poor, and with the liberty of the citizen who 
cannot afford the services of a lawyer to appeal his case 
to a higher court. Frequently the small sums involved 
are like the widow's mite, "all she had." It is vitally 
important that such claims should be decided promptly 
and ably, for the poor litigants have not the time to at- 



THE COUETS. 125 

tend court on appeal, nor money to hire lawyers to per- 
fect the appeal, nor sureties to go upon the appeal bond. 
The theory that it is unimportant what kind of a minor 
judiciary we have, has borne its perfect fruit, and now 
in a vast number of cases the magistrate's court has 
come to be looked upon as a place for a mere preliminary 
formality in matters where the sum is too small to give 
original jurisdiction to the Court of Common Pleas. It 
is quite ordinary practice for the defendant not to ap- 
pear at all and when judgment is given against him by 
default, to appeal. While undoubtedly this is frequent- 
ly done for delay, yet all too frequently it is the result 
of a feeling that no adequate trial will be given in the 
magistrate's court, and that since an appeal is inevi- 
table, any time taken in the magistrate's court is merely 
wasted. 

If only money matters were handled in these minor 
courts the theory that what the justices did was unim- 
portant might be upheld at least to the extent that it 
could be no more important than the value of one hun- 
dred dollars, or three hundred dollars, as the case might 
be, but the magistrates and justices of the peace are 
the judicial officers who come closest to the citizens in 
matters involving their personal liberty. It is the crimi- 
nal jurisdiction of these officers that gives them their 
great power. How great this power is, seldom is ap- 
preciated by the people at large. In order to make clear 
the place of the minor judiciary in the system of crimi- 
nal jurisdiction, let us observe what happens to a crimi- 
nal after the law has laid its heavy hand upon him. The 
arresting officer usually escorts his prisoner to a sta- 
tion house or village lockup, where he is held for safe- 
keeping. The station house is by no means intended as 
a place for punishment, but merely as a place of deten- 
tion until such time as the prisoner can be brought before 
a judicial officer. This matter is frequently misunder- 



126 STATE GOVERNMENT IN" PENNSYLVANIA. 

stood, and people who have merely spent the night at the 
station house are often branded with the unmerited 
stigma of having been in jail. No policeman can put a 
person in jail or force him to undergo any punishment. 
His power is limited to apprehending a person suspected 
of a crime and keeping him safely until his case is judici- 
ally determined. At the earliest opportunity, usually 
bright and early the next morning, the prisoner faces the 
judge. (On such occasions, at least, the magistrate is 
always called judge). If the crime is of a very minor 
nature, the magistrate will be able to proceed to sum- 
mary conviction, that is to say he can, by virtue of his 
own judicial power, sentence the prisoner to a penal in- 
stitution. Such is the proceeding when we read of the 
magistrate saying, "Ten days" or "Six months," or 
"Sending him up" to the workhouse, or house of cor- 
rection. If the grade of the crime charged is beyond 
this summary method, the function of the magistrate 
is limited to holding the prisoner for court, or if the 
evidence is insufficient to warrant this, of discharging 
him. This power of summary conviction for minor 
crimes gives the magistrate enormous power over a 
large class of humble citizens. He represents all the 
majesty of the law they know. When brought before 
him they see that they are released or punished without 
trial by jury and in obedience to his mere fiat. Another 
great source of the magistrate's power is his ability to 
discharge after a hearing people arrested for major 
crimes. "While such a discharge does not prevent a re- 
arrest and a hearing before another magistrate, it goes 
a long way towards discouraging the prosecution of an 
offender, and if a number of magistrates all amenable 
to the same influences should combine to discharge a 
prisoner it would be very hard to bring him finally to 
justice, no matter how guilty. Armed with these powers 
the magistrates are in a position to make themselves a 



THE COURTS. 127 

strong factor in a political machine. These powerful 
political engines are always nourished by favors. Pat- 
ronage supplies the most public, and, therefore, the best 
understood fuel for the political machines, but the num- 
ber of offices at the disposal of the party is limited, while 
the power of the magistrates to help or hurt is as broad 
as the number of citizens too poor to secure adequate 
counsel for their protection. The temptation to the 
magistrate to use his powers for political purposes is 
very great, and the temptation is enhanced by the com- 
parative secrecy in which many of his acts are per- 
formed. The offices of the magistrates are scattered 
throughout the city, and the matters they deal with are 
usually considered too trivial to be chronicled. To dis- 
charge a prisoner on bail is one of the ways in which 
magistrates can make themselves "useful." These dis- 
charges can be granted at any time or any place. 

While it is not urged that a legal training for magis- 
trates would make them absolutely pure and free from 
political influence, it is certain that it would give them a 
greater respect for their office, for the law and for the 
importance of their functions, and would prevent them 
from being betrayed into the frequent misuse of their 
power now prevalent, especially in committing to penal 
institutions. 

Writers on social subjects have frequently made the 
charge that the law pays more respect to property than 
it does to the rights of the individual. How far this ac- 
cusation may be justified this is not the place to discuss, 
but it is interesting to observe that it seems easier to 
arouse the public when their property rights are in- 
vaded than it is when there is a mere invasion of their 
right to liberty. While there can be no doubt of the fact 
that the worst failures of the magistrates in Philadel- 
phia are in their administration of the criminal law, it 
was their inadequacy on the civil side which originated 



128 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

the movement destined in all probability to result in their 
elimination. After the merchants of the State had 
thoroughly lost patience with the inefficiency of the mag- 
istrates ' and aldermen's courts, they organized a power- 
ful movement to secure the creation of a new type of 
court to handle minor cases. The organization and early 
success of the Municipal Court in Chicago pointed the 
way. The movement was undertaken both in Pittsburgh 
and in Philadelphia, but the western part of the State, 
which is usually more advanced in political ideas than 
the eastern part, was successful first, and in the session 
of the Legislature of 1911 a bill w r as passed creating a 
County Court in Allegheny County with jurisdiction both 
in civil and criminal matters, but limited in extent. 1 Phil- 
adelphia tried the same year to get a similar measure 
passed, but the magistrates were fully alive to the fact 
that the movement for the new court was largely a criti- 
cism of themselves, and so, aptly illustrating the fact 
that their position gives them great political power, they 
combined to secure the defeat of this measure of relief 
for Philadelphia. During the interim before the next 
session the demand in Philadelphia grew T , and was re- 
inforced by the realization of the social workers that 
some new tribunal was necessary if modern ideas of the 
application of justice to social needs were to be carried 
out. The combined pressure of Philadelphia's commer- 
cial needs, its social needs, and the general recognition 
that some relief from the congestion of business in the 
courts of common pleas was necessary was sufficient to 
secure the enactment in the session of 1913 of a law es- 



(1) Act May 5, 1911, P. L. 198. This act was hastily drafted 
and has required considerable tinkering, Act June 6, 1911, P. L. 664; 
Act March 27, 1913,, P. L. 17; Act April -2, 1913, P. L. 21; Act May 
23, 1913, P. L. 310; Act June 25, 1913, P. L. 545; Act March 19, 1915, 
P. L. 6; Act May 14, 1915, P. L. 502; Act May 14, 1915, P. L. 505; 
Act March 30, 1917, P. L. 



THE COUKTS. 



129 



tablishing the Municipal Court of Philadelphia. 2 It was 
not possible to abolish the office of magistrate, since it 
is provided for by the Constitution, nor is it likely that 
the act establishing the Municipal Court could have been 
passed if it had provided for the absolute extinction of 
the magistrates. So in Philadelphia the two systems 
now exist side by side, and a good opportunity will be 
afforded to observe the operation of the principle of the 
survival of the fittest. 

The Municipal Court has jurisdiction both in civil 
and criminal matters. In civil matters its jurisdiction 
is limited to cases involving no more than six hundred 
dollars in contract cases and fifteen hundred dollars in 
cases involving personal injury. In criminal matters it 
has jurisdiction oyer all but crimes of the most grave 
nature. What gives the Municipal Court its dignity and 
standing in the judicial system is the fact that appeals 
from its decision are not taken to the Common Pleas 
Courts, as is the case with the magistrates, but directly 
to the Superior or the Supreme Court as the case may 
be. Thus it stands on an equality with the Court of 
Common Pleas in everything except the extent of its 
jurisdiction. 

The opportunity presented by the constitution of a 
new tribunal of introducing many improvements in 
judicial procedure was promptly seen. It is easy to trace 
throughout the statute creating the court the dominant 
purpose of making the new tribunal an instrument for 
social service. Primarily, the court is to fulfill this ideal 
by dispensing prompt and cheap justice. "With this in 
view, the statute provides for a shortening and simpli- 
fication of the procedure now in force in the Common 
Pleas. The litigants may tell their story to the clerk 
of the court, and he will make out the requisite statement 
or answer. The trial of cases by a judge without a jury 

(2) Act July 12, 1913, P. L. 711. 

9 



130 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

is encouraged. The right to a jury trial is protected by 
the Constitution, and no one who desires a jury trial can 
be deprived of it against his will, but since the calling 
of a jury involves certain expenses, there is no legal 
objection to requiring the litigant who desires a jury 
to pay for it, and so the statute requires the litigant to 
elect whether he will have a jury trial or not. If he de- 
cides that he will, he must pay the jury fee of four dol- 
lars. This has the expected effect of greatly reducing 
the number of cases tried before a jury, and so largely 
increasing the number of cases which can be disposed 
of in a given time. But beyond the mere prompt des- 
patch of justice, there are many ways in which the new 
Municipal Court is expected to further the end of con- 
structive justice. 

Modern social thought in common with modern medi- 
cal thought realizes that prevention is far more effective 
than cure. To this realization can be ascribed the great 
advance in housing, playgrounds, public baths and other- 
improvements in physical living conditions, and the jun- 
ior republics, boy scouts and other movements which 
aim to train the future citizen for his responsibili- 
ties. The same idea is now affecting the treatment of 
the delinquent classes. Originally punishment was mere- 
ly retaliation; then self -protection ; and now punishment 
is also considered as a means for the rescue of the 
prisoner from his degradation. In this is found the best 
self-protection for society. When a prisoner has been 
merely punished (as the records show) he is apt to need 
punishment again and again, but when he has been re- 
made he ceases to be a charge on society. 

The influence of this point of view is very apparent 
not only in the statute which cheated the Municipal 
Court, but also in the court's operation and method. All 
juvenile delinquents now come before the Municipal 
Court. The early years of the twentieth century have 



THE COUKTS. 



131 



seen a great change in the attitude of society towards 
the child. Once he was treated as a little adult, but now 
it is realized that his mental processes are entirely dif- 
ferent from those of his elders. The new science of 
child psychology has laid the foundation for advance in 
many directions in the treatment of children, and the 
quickened sympathies of this generation have availed 
themselves of the new light. When once it is realized 
that children do not think as adults, it is but a short 
step to realize that they need to be treated in a different 
way. This conception was worked out in practice 
through the creation of the Juvenile Court. 3 

At first this work was made a department of the 
Court of Quarter Sessions but apparently the judges 
never rose to the conception of the majesty of this work, 
for they divided it up among themselves in rotation, as 
if it were a disagreeable work that must be shared equal- 
ly to be fair to all. The result was that no judge sat for 

(3) Act May 21, 1901, P. L. 279. This act was repealed and replaced 
by the act of April 23,,, 1903, P. L. 274. The preamble of the latter 
act is worth reproducing entire as illustrating how completely the 
new conception has been taken up into the law. 

"Whereas, The welfare of the State demands that children should 
be guarded from association and contract with crime and criminals, 
and the ordinary process of the criminal law does not provide such 
treatment and care and moral encouragement as. are essential to all 
children in the formative period of life, but endangers the whole 
future of the child; 

And Whereas, Experience has shown that children, lacking 
proper parental care or guardianship, are led into courses of life 
which may render them liable to the pains and penalties of the 
criminal law of the State, although in fact the real interests of such 
child or children require that they be not incarcerated in peniten- 
tiaries and jails, as members of the criminal class, but be subject to 
a wise care, treatment and control, that their evil tendencies may 
be checked and their better instincts may be strengthened; 

And Whereas, To that end, it is important that the powers of 
the courts, in respect to the care, treatment and control over depen- 
dent, neglected, delinquent and incorrigible children, should be 
clearly distinguished from the powers exercised in the administration 
of the criminal law. Be it enacted, etc." 



132 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

a sufficient length of time to recognize the recurrent 
cases. The creation of the Municipal Court gave the op- 
portunity for the erection of machinery adequate to 
bring the court up to the level of enlightened public 
opinion. Work for the reformation of individuals re- 
quires constant patience and supervision. This is true 
whether the individuals to be helped are adults or chil- 
dren. Domestic relations cases, such as the ordering of 
husbands to pay support to their wives, require the con- 
stant supervision of a judge familiar with the cases, 
therefore the Municipal Court was given exclusive juris- 
diction of domestic relations cases also. 

In order to remove children from the debasing in- 
fluences of contact with criminals and the disastrous re- 
sults of treating them as criminals, it is provided that 
there shall be no preliminary hearing for children with 
the binding over for court, which is the ordinary practice 
in criminal cases, as previously described, but "such 
children shall be brought immediately before the judge 
of the Juvenile Court, and he shall hear and determine 
such cases separately from each other, at such places and 
at such hours of the day or night as will in the judgment 
of the president judge and of the judge of the Juvenile 
Court, be most conducive to the welfare of such chil- 
dren. 4 In order to make it impossible for the Municipal 
Court judges to chop up the juvenile work among them 
for short periods each, it was provided by the statute 
that one of the judges shall be designated to hold the 
Juvenile Court for a period of one year or longer. It 
is probable that a judge once having been chosen for 
this work will continue in it throughout his term of office, 
and that his success will grow with his experience. 

The Municipal Court, with its judges specially desig- 

(4) Act July 12, 1913, P. L. 711, See. 9. Exclusive charge of 
the House of Detention is given to the Municipal Court by Act April 
26, 1917, P. L. 



THE COURTS. 133 

nated for juvenile and for domestic relations work, and 
with its corps of probation officers, is now equipped to 
give a direct parental care over the classes in the com- 
munity which specially require that kind of attention. 
The success of the court in its new line of work encour- 
aged the Legislature to entrust it with more. Experi- 
ence had demonstrated that the arbitrary line of sixteen 
years did not mark the time when it was safe to consider 
children adults so far as subjecting them to the 
criminal court was concerned. Accordingly, it was pro- 
vided 5 that adolescents from 16 to 21 years of age were 
to be handled directly by the Municipal Court, instead 
of by magistrates and the Quarter Sessions Court as be- 
fore. Three classes of cases now come before the Mu- 
nicipal Court under this legislation: (1), incorrigible boys 
from 16 to 21 years of age; (2), incorrigible girls of the 
same age, and (3), street walkers. In dealing with the 
boys, after they have been locked up in the House of 
Detention for a period ranging from twenty-four hours 
to three days, the probation machinery of the court ex- 
erts itself through an employment agency of its own to 
get the boy a job. While working at this job, a probation 
officer keeps track of him for a period of one year. One 
night a week during that period the boy visits the officer, 
and once every two weeks the officer visits the boy's 
home. If the result has been satisfactory, at the end of 
the year the boy will be discharged from probation and 
will be well started on his way to self-respecting inde- 
pendence. The girls are treated much in the same way, 
and are subjected to constant supervision by women pro- 
bation officers. The treatment of the third class of cases, 
is one of the greatest problems before the court, yet it 
is very encouraging that at last society is striving for 
a constructive solution of this problem. Heretofore, 
they were simply punished, and very few cases are on 
(5) Act June 17, 1915, P. L. 1017. 



134 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

record where the punishment worked a reformation. 
Under the brief experience of the Municipal Court with 
its new powers, there has still been developed no treat- 
ment for the confirmed cases except incarceration. With 
the younger cases, however, much is accomplished. 
Where necessary, medical treatment is given. Cases of 
feeble-mindedness are discovered and sent to proper in- 
stitutions, 6 and every effort is made by the probation 
officers to change the environment and remove the delin- 
quent to an atmosphere where improvement seems pos- 
sible. 

When stated in cold legal terms of jurisdiction, the 
creation of the Municipal Court might not seem to be of 
great social importance, yet when the currents of thought 
which caused its creation are understood and when it is 
realized that the court itself in its organization and prac- 
tice has caught the new social vision, the institution of 
this court may well be looked upon as marking the point 
of departure between the merely judicial and the con- 
structively social point of view of the machinery of jus- 
tice. 

The criminal jurisdiction of the Municipal Court has 
not yet been very much developed. It is concurrent with 
the older courts and has no superior facilities for the 
treatment of the ordinary adult criminal. 

The court that we have just been describing is a new- 
ly created one and may be considered as an embellish- 
ment of the judicial system, of which the main structure 
is the Court of Common Pleas. This court has juris- 
diction over every kind of civil case to an unlimited 
amount in value. Its territorial jurisdiction covers a 
judicial district. W T henever a county contains forty 
thousand inhabitants or more, it constitutes a judicial 
district by itself, but the smaller counties are grouped 

(6) That is, as far as is possible. The State is woefully deficient 
in institutions for the care of feebleminded women. 



THE COURTS. 135 

to make up a district. Each district lias at least one 
judge and the larger districts have more, according to 
the press of business and the generosity of the Legisla- 
ture. 

When counties are large enough to constitute a sepa- 
rate district the judges must be learned in the law — that 
is to say — must be lawyers. In the smaller counties 
there still lingers the quaint fossil of an ancient reform. 
The persistent criticism against court and lawyers has 
always been that they lack common sense. Accordingly, 
sometime in the dim past, the idea was broached of elect- 
ing a layman of sound judgment to sit as associate judge 
and illuminate the technical opinions of the law judge 
with the dry light of common sense. The experiment 
did not commend itself in practice and the larger com- 
munities with real business to transact demanded trained 
men. The present Constitution abolished the office of 
associate judge except for counties so small that several 
are required to make up a judicial district. 

The Constitution devotes a whole section 7 to the or- 
ganization of the courts of common pleas of Philadel- 
phia and Allegheny Counties as distinguished from the 
other judicial districts of the State. As originally 
adopted, Philadelphia was provided with four distinct 
and separate courts of common pleas of equal and co- 
ordinate jurisdiction. Each court had three judges. Al- 
legheny was likewise provided with two separate and 
distinct courts of common pleas, also with three judges 
apiece. Provision was made for increasing the number 
of courts and the number of judges by the Legislature. 
Such increase was made from time to time, until Phila- 
delphia came to have five separate courts of common 
pleas of three judges each, and Allegheny County four 
such courts. It has long been recognized that the sepa- 
ration of these courts from one another instead of pro- 
(7) Art. V, Sec. 6. 



136 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

viding for a single court, with as many judges as neces- 
sary, was a mistake. Again it was the western part of 
the State which secured a reformation first, and 
on November 7, 1911, an amendment was adopted 
to the section just mentioned providing for the 
merging of the several courts of common pleas in Al- 
legheny County into one. An effort was made in the 
session of 1913 to merge the Philadelphia courts by a 
statute. 8 This was promptly declared unconstitutional. 9 
Since then Philadelphia County has made little effort to 
secure the necessary constitutional amendment to place 
it on a par with Allegheny County. 

The criminal law is administered in two separate 
courts, known as "Courts of Oyer and Terminer" and 
"Courts of Quarter Sessions of the Peace and General 
Jail Delivery." These courts differ from each other in 
certain technical respects not necessary of treatment in 
a sketch so general as this, but the judges are the same 
men in each, and the same men elected judges of the 
Common Pleas, nor is there any separation of the ma- 
chinery of the courts of Oyer and Terminer from the 
courts of Quarter Sessions. Although the judges who 
sit in the criminal courts are, as a matter of fact, the com- 
mon pleas judges, the criminal courts have a set of ma- 
chinery separate from the common pleas courts. The 
latter courts have a clerk who is called the Prothonotary 
and is appointed by the judges, while the clerk of the 
criminal court is called the Clerk of Quarter Sessions 
and is elected by the people. While it is possible that 
in the dim past there might have been a time when the 
people thought they needed the protection of an elected 
official to see that no savage judge tampered with the 
records, at present it is hard to see the reason for en- 

(8) Act June 11, 1913, P. L. 469. 

(9) Bachman vs. McMichael, 242 Pa. 482. 



THE COUETS. 137 

cumbering the ballot with the election of a clerk of quar- 
ter sessions. 

The great historic division of the civil courts of Eng- 
land into law courts and chancery courts has never been 
followed in Pennsylvania. This is probably owing to 
the fact that the Chancery Court, or Court of Equity, 
was very unpopular at the time when Pennsylvania's 
system was forming. The Court of Chancery in Eng- 
land originated in an attempt to provide for justice in 
cases where the law courts could not or would not give 
it. Pennsylvania 's early theory was to make a law court 
so excellent that there would be no need for a Chancery 
Court. Accordingly all equitable principles were to be 
worked out through common law forms. Unfortunately 
for this scheme the chancery procedure was really the 
best, and, therefore, was the heir to the future. Chan- 
cery powers have been steadily added to the courts of 
Common Pleas until now they are practically full fledged 
Chancery Courts as well as courts of Common Law, and 
the general trend in the evolution of practice is towards 
approximation of the general methods of chancery. 

Up until the time of the present Constitution the 
judges of the Common Pleas held also the Orphans' 
Court, and in the smaller counties they do so still. But 
as with the growth of wealth, the work of caring judici- 
ally for the estates of the deceased became very great 
in the centres of population, it was provided that in 
counties of more than one hundred and fifty thousand in- 
habitants a separate court should be erected with its 
own judge or judges, to have nothing but Orphans' Court 
jurisdiction. Where the work is specially heavy, more 
than one Orphans' Court judge is provided. Philadel- 
phia County now has five, and Allegheny County has 
three. 

The court of last resort in Pennsylvania is the Su- 
preme Court, consisting of seven judges elected by the 



138 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

people of the whole State. They serve for twenty-one 
years and may not be re-elected. The judge oldest in 
point of service becomes the chief justice, so each judge 
on this bench has a chance of holding the highest judicial 
position of the State. The organization of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania in this respect differs from the 
Supreme Court of the United States, whose justices are 
appointed by the President and the chief justice ap- 
pointed specifically to that office. In the high court of 
the nation mere longevity raises no claim to the chief 
justiceship, though conspicuous service as associate jus- 
tice may lead to that advancement, as is signally illus- 
trated in the case of the present incumbent. 

In the early history of the State, the judges of the 
Supreme Court were accustomed to go about in judicial 
districts and actually try the cases in the first instance. 
Under the present Constitution the Supreme Court 
judges do not do this, but are confined almost entirely to 
appellate work. 10 However, the court does not always 
sit in the same place, but alternates between Harrisburg, 
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. For the purpose of bring- 
ing appeals the State is divided into three districts, of 
which the cities just mentioned are the respective judicial 
capitals. 

That malady so common to courts, congested dockets, 
has not spared the Supreme Court in the past. At 
length the trouble became so acute that the Legislature 
set out to find a remedy. It might have been provided 
that the number of judges should be increased, but the 
Legislature chose the method of erecting another Ap- 

(10) The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in cases of 
injunction where a corporation is a party defendent, of habeas 
corpus, of mandamus to courts of inferior jurisdiction, and of quo 
warranto as to all officers of the Commonwealth whose jurisdiction 
extends over the state, but such cases make up a very small part of 
the business of the Court. 

Const. Art., Sec. 3. 



THE COURTS. 139 

pellate Court to have jurisdiction over cases of less im- 
portance. This was called the Superior Court. It is the 
court of last resort for all cases that come within the 
scope of its jurisdiction unless the Supreme Court es- 
pecially allows appeals, in which case the matter goes 
from the Superior Court to the Supreme Court. 

Although a reading of the Constitution would show 
that our judges are elected, yet the observer of affairs 
realizes that we have all but an appointive judiciary, for 
the custom has grown fixed, especially in the large cities, 
of re-electing faithful judges irrespective of their politi- 
cal affiliation, and since the Governor is charged with 
filling vacancies when these occur on the bench, it is 
usually these ad interim appointed judges who become 
the elected judges to serve term after term. The elec- 
tion laws of the State, as will be described in the proper 
chapter, have also been modified to further the idea of 
an absolutely non-partisan judiciary. Since obedience 
to law is the cement which holds together the structure 
of society, Pennsylvania may well think herself fortu- 
nate that the character and ability of her judges has 
averaged so high. 



CHAPTER XII. 



DIVISIONS OF THE STATE. 



EVERY citizen understands that besides the State 
itself, the authority of whose officers extends into 
every corner of the Commonwealth, there exists a 
considerable number of local governing bodies with vary- 
ing power and responsibility. These are apt to be con- 
sidered in a vague sort of a way as all parts of "the 
government" and all of the same nature, but they are 
no more of the same nature than the potter and his clay. 
Sovereignty resides in the State ; the city and the county 
are but the instruments of the State whereby it effects 
its purposes of local government. The local bodies can 
do nothing unless some authorization from the State can 
be found. The difference between the State and the city, 
for example, is aptly illustrated by the difference be- 
tween the two classes of instruments through which they 
express their will. The State through its Legislature 
enacts a statute, the city through its councils adopts an 
ordinance. If the State desires to punish violations of 
its statutes, it may make such violations a misdemeanor, 
so that the machinery of the criminal law may be invoked 
against the offender. All that the city can do, however, 
is to assess a sum of money in the nature of a fine against 
anyone who violates the ordinance. The violation, how- 
ever, is not a misdemeanor and cannot be punished as 
a crime. Such a fine is merely a debt due the city, and 
must be collected as other debts are collected. If the 
city feels that this method of enforcing its ordinances 
is not sufficiently powerful, the only way in which the 
matter can be mended is for the city to prevail upon the 
State to pass a statute covering the matter in question. 
140 



DIVISIONS OF THE STATE. 141 

A good illustration of this is the law against spitting. 
There had long been various ordinances and local regu- 
lations against spitting, 1 but the terrors of the local ordi- 
nances had not been sufficient to ensure their enforce- 
ment, consequently a State law was passed forbidding 
spitting in public, 2 and now the local Boards of Health 
are better sustained in this respect. 

The various local governing bodies are called munici- 
pal corporations. They differ greatly among themselves 
in the degree in which they are organized, and the im- 
portance of their functions. The nature of a municipal 
corporation can be understood by comparison with the 
ordinary business corporation. Both are artificial per- 
sonalities which draw their breath of life from the State. 
The powers of both are absolutely dependent upon the 
powers given them by the State. The business corpora- 
tion is organized for the purpose of making money or 
for effecting some private charitable purpose; while the 
municipal corporation is organized to make the living 
together of numbers of people more comfortable. The 
private business corporation is comparatively a modern 
invention, and arose from the necessity of aggregating 
the capital of a number of adventurers in some enter- 
prise which was too costly for any one person to carry 
alone. The origin of the municipal corporation is lost 
in the mists of antiquity. We know that the early states 
of Greece were simply cities with a small section of coun- 
try immediately surrounding them. We know that the 
whole Eoman Empire sprang from the city on the seven 
hills. In the turbulent times of the Middle Ages, many 
localities, previously not incorporated, extracted char- 
ters from the local feudal magnate, whatever his name 
might be, and became cities. Some of them owed no al- 
legiance to any overlord and were known as free cities. 

(1) Ordinance March 9, 1903, page 34. 

(2) Act May 11, 1909, P. L. 516. 



142 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

These municipalities played an important part in the de- 
velopment of European history. If a city claims the 
right of existence through a sovereignty inherent in it- 
self, it must be looked upon as a small state, but when it 
depends upon a charter of right and immunity from 
some sovereign body it is a municipal corporation. 3 

The term municipal corporation refers by no means 
to cities alone. The State has many different kinds of 
purposes for local government, and, therefore, needs 
many agents. Some of these agents have more complex 
work to do than others, and so need greater and more 
far-reaching powers. It may be said in general that, as 
would naturally be expected to be the case, wherever the 
population is larger, the duties and powers of the munic- 
ipal corporation will be greater. 

The various kinds of municipal corporations in Penn- 
sylvania are as follows : 

Counties, 

Cities of the First Class, 

Cities of the Second Class, 

Cities of the Third Class, 

Boroughs, 

Incorporated towns, 

Townships of the First Class, 

Townships of the Second Class, 

Poor districts, 

School districts. 



(3) "A corporation is a legal institution, devised to confer upon 
the individuals of which it is composed powers, privileges, and immun- 
ities which they would not otherwise possess, the most important of 
which are continuous legal identity or unity, and perpetual or indefinite 
succession under the corporate name, not with successive changes, by 
death or otherwise, in the corporators or members." Commentaries on 
the Law of Municipal Corporations. By John F. Dillon, LL. D., Fifth 
edition, Boston, 1911, p. 57. 

"A municipal corporation, in its strict and proper sense, is the 
body politic and corporate constituted by the incorporation of the 
inhabitants of a city or town for the purpose of local government 
thereof. Municipal corporations as they exist in this country are 
bodies politic and corporate of the general character above described, 
established by law partly as an agency of the state to assist in the 



DIVISIONS OF THE STATE. 143 

Of each of these we must say a few words in turn, 
but first it will be necessary to explain in what way they 
are distributed throughout the State and how they fit 
into each other to make the complete Commonwealth. 
Several of these municipal corporations exist in the same 
place at the same time, while others are mutually ex- 
clusive. It may make the comprehension of their geo- 
graphical relationships easier if we cast our description 
into visual form. Imagine a map of the State, perfectly 
white. This will represent the all pervasive sway of the 
Commonwealth reaching every corner of the State ir- 
respective of what other governmental unit may exist 
in any part of it. Then if we draw in the counties, sixty- 
seven of them, we shall see that there is no point which 
is not comprised within the boundaries of some county. 
Then we should paint in the cities, representing them by 
points of brilliant color. In the single case of Philadel- 
phia we should notice that the city occupies the entire 
territory of the county, but in the case of all other cities 
we should find them entirely within the borders of some 
county and leaving considerable territory in the county 
not within the bounds of the city. After this we should 
indicate upon the map the boroughs and incorporated 
towns. Then, filling in the State around the cities, bor- 
oughs and incorporated towns, and completely covering 
the remainder of the State, come the townships. By 
this time it will be observed that every citizen is buried 
under a triple layer of government, State, county and 
municipal, but more is to come. The fourth layer is com- 
posed of poor districts which in the aggregate cover the 
State. A fifth layer is composed of school districts. 
Strictly speaking the poor districts do not cover the 
State, for their functions are in places taken over by 



civil government of the country, but chiefly to regulate and administer 
the local or internal affairs of the city, town or district which is in- 
corporated." ibid p. 58. 



144 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

other local units, usually cities, though for practical pur- 
poses every person is in some poor district. It is evi- 
dent now that each citizen is subject to five different 
kinds of governmental units, the State, the county, the 
municipality, the school district and the poor district. 
Each of these can tax him. It is no wonder that we some- 
times think our government is complex. It is clear, how- 
ever, that if we are to be practical in our citizenship we 
must have a fairly sharp idea of the powers and duties 
of the various units of which the government is com- 
posed. 

There is a class of divisions of the State which are 
sometimes confused with municipal corporations, but 
which are in reality of a very distinct nature. These 
divisions are not corporations at all, that is to say, they 
have no legal personality but are simply places, geo- 
graphical localities, ordinarily delineated to simplify 
some governmental function. Nearly every administra- 
tive department of the government divides the territory 
under its control in a way that will best suit its purposes. 
As illustrations of these geographical districts we have 
congressional districts, State senatorial districts, State 
representative districts, judicial districts, election dis- 
tricts, and, within the city, we have such districts as 
wards, police districts, fire districts and any number of 
other districts created by the local administrative de- 
partments. It is necessary for a practical citizen to fa- 
miliarize himself with every kind of geographical district 
in which he lives, for his activity will be affected in some 
way by each, but it is impossible in a book of the general 
scope of this to enumerate them. We desire here simply 
to emphasize the radical nature of the difference between 
the geographical district and the municipal corporation. 
Without an understanding of this distinction it will be 
difficult to comprehend the needs of the municipal cor- 
porations and the legislation necessary to supply them. 

We shall now take up the various municipal corpora- 
tions, beginning with the county. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



COUNTIES. 



ONE of the first organizing acts of Penn and his first 
assembly was the creation of three counties, Phil- 
adelphia, Chester and Bucks. 1 All the rest of the 
counties in the State are descended from these original 
three by a process of budding, or fission, familiar to the 
biologist. 

The idea of the county was familiar to the colonists, 
as it was an English institution coming down from early 
times. The unity of the English nation was achieved 
only gradually, and the counties represent sections of 
the country which once enjoyed considerable independ- 
ence of the crown. When the authority of the king was 
fully established, he was represented by two chief offi- 
cers, the sheriff and the coroner. The Sheriff of Not- 
tingham, that oft foiled enemy of Robin Hood, is per- 
haps the most popularly known of early sheriffs. The 
name of the coroner is indicative of his relation to the 
king, for coroner is from the Latin word meaning a 
crown, and anciently the name was sometimes corrupted 
to "crowner" as may be seen by the usage of Shakes- 
peare : 

First Clown : Is she to be buried in Christian Burial, 
that wilfully seekes her own salvation? 

Second Clown : I tell thee she is, and therefore make 
her grave straight; the crowner hath sat on her and 
finds it Christian burial. 2 

In Pennsylvania the functions of the county have 
undergone little change since the founding of the State. 



(1) A. D. 1682. See Votes of the Assembly, Vol I. 

(2) Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1. 

145 

10 



146 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

As these duties are almost entirely of an administrative 
nature, but a very simple organization is required. We 
have shown previously that the judicial system is a State 
affair, and in the relation of the judicial system to the 
county we have a clear example of the way in which the 
State uses the local municipal corporations for the pur- 
pose of effecting its own ends. The sheriff, as of old, 
is the chief officer of the county, and he is the arm of 
the court. He, in person or through his deputies, serves 
the processes and executes the decrees of the court. He 
is the keeper of the county jail and, until recently, 3 he 
dropped the trap that swung the condemned into 
eternity. 

The coroner's function is now no more than to make 
a preliminary investigation in all cases of death where 
a physician's certificate of cause is not available, or 
where there seems any reason to suspect a crime in con- 
nection with the death. He can bind any suspected per- 
son over for court, but has little power else. If for any 
reason a sheriff is disqualified to act, the coroner tem- 
porarily performs his functions. 

Other county officers directly connected with the ad- 
ministration of justice are the District Attorney, who is 
the representative of the Commonwealth in criminal mat- 
ters ; the Prothonotary, who is the clerk of the Courts 
of Common Pleas (also in Philadelphia of the Municipal 
Court and in Allegheny County of the County Court) ; 
the Register of Wills, who besides his duty of register- 
ing wills, granting letters of administration, etc., is clerk 
of the Orphans' Court; the clerk of Quarter Sessions, 
who is the clerk of the Criminal Court. The duties of 
the several officers just described illustrate clearly how 
the State works through the county, but other aspects 

(3) Hanging was abolished and electrocution substituted, to be 
carried out at the State penitentiary near Bellefonte, by Act June 
19, 1913, P. L. 528. 



COUNTIES. 147 

of a county illustrate its nature as a local administrative 
unit. The executive officers of a county are the County 
Commissioners, of whom there are three, elected for four 
years. The counties do not have any distinctive legis- 
lative machinery, since so little of their work could be 
called legislative that there is no use for a legislative 
branch. 

In the provisions for the election of County Commis- 
sioners, we have one of the clearest illustrations of the 
theory of government known as minority representation, 
which was incorporated as an experiment into the pres- 
ent Constitution. It was believed that if a member of 
a minority party were always to sit upon every board 
or other governing body consisting of more than one 
member, an effective check would be provided against the 
use of power for party or other selfish purpose. The 
technical way in which this minority representation is 
secured is by providing that no voter shall vote for the 
complete number of officers to be elected. For instance, 
in the case of the three County Commissioners, no one 
can vote for more than two. Thus, the majority party 
will elect two members of the board and the party next 
in strength will elect one member. This method is also 
in use in the election of magistrates, where each voter 
can vote for only two-thirds of the total number to be 
elected. The same idea appears in other parts of our 
electoral system. 

It would, perhaps, be saying too much to assert that 
minority representation has never done any good. No 
doubt there have been times when the minority member 
was an efficient check upon the majority, but there has 
been a curious reaction which could not have been fore- 
seen by those who urged upon the constitutional conven- 
tion the adoption of the idea of minority representation. 
In this State the usual minority party had for a long 
period given over the hope of becoming itself the major- 



148 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

ity party, and, therefore, had learned to expect no plums 
except the offices which come to it by virtue of the princi- 
ple of minority representation. Since the majority party 
has so many votes to spare, it had no difficulty in a case, 
for instance, such as the election of County Commission- 
ers, in sparing enough votes to determine which of the 
three candidates of the minority party should be suc- 
cessful in securing the one position open to them. In 
this way it obtained practical control of the minority 
offices also. So leaders grew up in the minority party 
who owed their strength to the votes cast in their inter- 
est by the majority party and, while their nominal al- 
legiance was to the minority party, their actual allegi- 
ance was to those to whom they owed their power. Thus 
minority representation, which was intended to elevate 
the conduct of public office, resulted in the degradation 
of minority parties and in the creation of the system of 
bipartisan bossism which is so disastrous to free govern- 
ment. The success of the Democratic party in the elec- 
tions of 1912 and 1916 has changed these conditions to 
a considerable degree by encouraging the hope that the 
Eepublican majority might be upset. 

The work of the County Commissioners which im- 
poses the greatest amount of detail is in connection with 
the elections, which are organized on a county basis. The 
County Commissioners prepare and distribute the bal- 
lots and other election paraphernalia, issue watcher's 
certificates and, in the case of the primary election, com- 
pute the results of the returns made by the election 
officers. 

The County Treasurer is the fiscal officer of the 
county. His accounts are audited, in the case of the 
smaller counties, by three auditors, and in the larger 
counties, by a comptroller. The chief difference between 
these two sets of offices is that the auditors meet once a 
year after the work has been done and ask the question, 



COUNTIES. 149 

"What are we going to do about it?" while the comp- 
troller is at work all the time and may stop a wrong ex- 
penditure before it is made. 

Counties also have a number of powers and duties 
which are very similar to those performed by other kinds 
of municipal corporations. They build and maintain 
public buildings, usually the court house and jail, build 
and repair roads and bridges, as well as perform a num- 
ber of minor activities. In order to enable them to carry 
out their powers they have the right to tax and also to 
borrow^ money and issue bonds. Philadelphia County 
has been so absorbed and overwhelmed by its more active 
associate, the city, that it is sometimes hard to recognize 
the functions of the county. For example, Philadelphia 
County neither taxes nor borrows money, but is entirely 
provided for by the city. It is not for that reason any 
less a county, and if in the future any good reason should 
appear why it should perform these functions, it would 
be easy for the Legislature to give it the requisite author- 
ity. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



CITIES. 



UP from the Gulf one day in September, 1900, 
sprang a hurricane and wreaked its fury on the 
unoffending' city of G-alveston. Death and de- 
struction followed in its wake, yet it brought a great 
benefaction to the country. Truly "out of the eater 
came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweet- 
ness." The shock of the Galveston disaster was the 
motive power for the introduction of modern forms of 
city government. A decade and a half later a second 
furious outburst of nature beat at the gates of Galves- 
ton, but there stood the mighty concrete wall, the product 
of Galveston's former experience worked out by its re- 
created government. The city still endures as founded 
upon a rock. 

The immediate success in Galveston of its commis- 
sion form of government caused the introduction into 
many other cities, not only in Texas but throughout the 
whole United States, of a similar system. The essential 
characteristics of the commission form of government 
have been described by a recent writer as follows i 1 

(I.) The small number of officers constituting the governing 

body. 
(II.) Their election by the whole body of voters, instead of by 
wards. 
(HI.) The exercise of administrative oversight and broad ap- 
pointing power, as well as legislative authority by the 
board; 
(IV.) The assignment of each commissioner to be the head of a 
definite department, for the conduct of which he is re- 
sponsible to the commission and to the people; and 
(V.) The "checks" designed to assure direct popular control. 

(1) Ernest S. Bradford, Ph.D., Commission Government in 
American Cities, New York, The MacMillan Company, 1911, p. 129. 

150 



CITIES. 151 

These "checks" may be few or many, ranging from the 
simple publicity in the Galveston plan, and a referendum 
on bond issues only, already provided by state law ; to the 
referendum on all ordinances, the initiative, recall, non- 
partisan primaries and elections, a civil service commission, 
and various specific prohibitions as in the more recent 
charters of Des Moines, and other municipalities. 

It is very interesting to note that as Pennsylvania 
comes to alter the charters of her various classes of 
cities she gradually introduces more and more of the 
fundamental principles of the commission form of gov- 
ernment. The cities of the first class have the oldest 
form of government. Their charter long antedates the 
experience of Galveston, and none of the ideas 
worked out there can be found in it. The govern- 
ment of cities of the second class was radically altered 
in 1911 and shows very distinctly the commission idea in 
the single small council. It was the desire of those who 
urged the change that all of the other features of the 
commission form of government should be included, but 
Pennsylvania's conservatism prevented that. As a step 
in advance, however, the small council in cities of the 
second class is interesting and useful. Cities of the third 
class have been reconstructed by very recent legislation 
and here we find an almost complete exemplification of 
the commission form of government. In describing these 
various classes of cities we will follow the chronological 
order and describe the oldest and worst first, progress- 
ing towards the light in cities of the second class and 
finally emerging in the blaze of day when describing 
cities of the third class. Thus we can close the discus- 
sion with a feeling akin to exhilaration, for nothing en- 
courages hope like a feeling that we are pointed in the 
right direction. No serious effort seems to have been 
made in this State to go the whole way and introduce 
the city manager plan, which is an improvement on the 
commission plan for the same reasons that the commis- 



152 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

sion plan is an improvement over the large councils sys- 
tem. However, an interesting beginning has been made 
in the case of boroughs, whose councils are empowered 
to create the office of Borough Manager. 2 

Students of American government have long recog- 
nized that the cities are the weakest spots in our govern- 
mental system. Various reasons can be advanced for 
our failure to achieve success in this particular line of 
governmental activity. Without question our unintelli- 
gent habit of governing cities by means of parties based 
on national issues has a good deal to do with it. In 
the course of time, as the political education of the peo- 
ple advances, we shall doubtless get away from this diffi- 
culty, but there is an important obstacle to efficient mu- 
nicipal government which is not a matter of ingrained 
political habit, and which can be cured by mere statu- 
tory and constitutional changes. And just because this 
obstacle can be overcome with such comparative ease, 
it is all the more necessary that it should be thoroughly 
understood. This obstacle is the deep seated misconcep- 
tion of the nature of a city and of the powers which it 
needs for the proper discharge of its functions. Like 
many other misconceptions it is not even self -consistent 
On one side the false analogy is formed between the gov- 
ernment of the cities and of the State. Consequently, 
we find the government provided for the cities elabor- 
ately imitating the State government, with legislative 
and executive branches, bills on first, second and third 
reading, vetoes, messages from the executive to the legis- 
lative branch, and many other pieces of machinery which 
are thoroughly in place in the government of a mighty 
Commonwealth, but entirely out of place in the adminis- 
tration of a municipality. The second branch of the mis- 
conception seems strangely contradictory to the first. 
Notwithstanding the fact that the city is supposed to 

(2) Act June 23, 1917, P. L. 



CITIES. 153 

resemble a State closely, it is rigidly circumscribed in 
action. The State in a niggardly way doles out to its 
cities a very restricted corporate power, and frequently 
great campaigns have to be waged in order to convince 
members of the Legislature who come from country dis- 
tricts and have little interest in city affairs, of the advis- 
ability of certain local regulations. It is true that Penn- 
sylvania in this respect is by no means as badly off as 
many other States, and it is also true that there has been 
a constant tendency towards municipal home rule, but 
the goal is still very far off. 3 

As a matter of fact, cities are but corporations, and 
the same general principles of administration which have 
been found successful in great business corporations of 
the country are equally applicable to the government of 
cities. They may be summed up briefly as follows : That 
the actual administrative work should be done by ex- 
perts ; that responsibility should be concentrated and ac- 
companied with adequate power; and that the general 
direction of policy should be in the hands of a small 
board elected by the people interested. These principles 
are aimed at in the commission form of government and 
best secured in the form providing for a small council 
and a city manager. 

Before beginning a description of the various kinds 
of cities, it will be worth while to say a word about the 
reason for the classification of cities, and the basis upon 
which it is made. The Constitution forbids the passage 
of local or special legislation governing the affairs of 
cities, 4 but it was soon found that the needs of the dif- 
ferent cities were so different that the greatest hard- 



(3) For instance, when a city wants to do so natural a municipal 
act as to give money to a historical association, or provide music for 
its citizens, it must get power from the legislature. Act March 31, 
1915, P. L. 36. Act April 5, 1917, P. L. 

(4) Const. Art. Ill, Sec. 5. 



154 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

ship would be entailed if none but laws of general ap- 
plication could be passed. Consequently the Legislature 
adopted the scheme of separating the cities into classes 
and legislating for them by passing laws applicable to 
a whole class. If it should so happen that there was but 
a single city in a class, legislation, although general in 
theory, would be for all practical purposes special and 
local for that city. 

The first classification act 5 divided the cities into 
three classes, and was held to be constitutional, 6 but 
later when the Legislature tried to carry the scheme 
further and divide the cities into seven classes, the Su- 
preme Court called a halt. 7 The classification act now in 
force 8 divides the cities into three classes, as follows : 

Those containing a population of one million or over 
constitute the first class ; 

Those containing a population of one hundred thou- 
sand and under one million constitute the second class ; 

Those containing a population under one hundred 
thousand constitute the third class. 

Wordsworth's little girl who, though alone, insisted, 
"We are seven," is suggestive of the situation of Phila- 
delphia, which is "Cities of the first class." In the sec- 
ond class matters are not much better, as this contains 
but the two cities of Pittsburgh and Scranton. Origi- 
nally there were three, but when Pittsburgh swallowed 
up Allegheny, the number was reduced by one-third. 
Even the small number of two cities in a class is sufficient 
to illustrate the difficulty of general legislation, for 
Pittsburgh is continually demanding and getting legis- 

(5) Act of May 23, 1874, P. L. 230. 

(6) Wheeler vs. Philadelphia, 77, Pa. 338. 

(7) Act April 11, 1876, P. L. 20. Act May 24, 1887, P. L. 204. 
Ayar's Appeal, 122, Pa. 266. Ruan Street, 132, Pa. 257. King vs. 
Philadelphia Co. 154, Pa. 160. 

(8) Act June 25. 1895, P. L. 275. 



CITIES. 155 

lation which is useful to it but proves a burden to the 
much smaller city of Scranton. 

Dropping the cumbrous title of cities of the first class, 
we shall now proceed to give a brief description of the 
government of Philadelphia. 



CHAPTER XV. 



CITIES OF THE FIRST CLASS. 



IF we were to make an inquiry for the charter of the 
city of Philadelphia we would not find any single 
document that corresponds to that name. When 
Penn founded the city he gave it several charters in suc- 
cession, and those documents carry out all the popular 
ideas of a charter ; but since then there has been a great 
mass of legislation moulding the form of the government 
of the city of Philadelphia, and it is all this taken to- 
gether which is meant when we speak of its charter. The 
bulk of this legislation is comprised in what is known 
as the Bullitt Act, 1 named after the illustrious lawyer 
who framed it. There is no question at all but that the 
Bullitt Act was a great step in advance over the dis- 
jointed and heterogeneous form of government under 
which Philadelphia had previously suffered, but it is 
one of the most perfect examples on record of that mis- 
conception of which we have already spoken which con- 
siders a city as parallel in form of government with a 
State. It provides a Common and Select branch of 
Councils, elegantly imitating the House of Representa- 
tives and the Senate, and the imitation of the United 
States Senate by Select Council is carried far enough to 
copy even the unequal method of representation, for 
while members of Common Council are apportioned ac- 
cording to population, the members of Select Council 
are distributed one to each ward, notwithstanding the 
fact that one ward may be fifteen times as- large as an- 
other. This unequal representation which originated as 
a practical compromise between the large and small 

(1) Act June 1, 1885, P. L. 37. 
156 



CITIES OF THE FIEST CLASS. 157 

States in the formation of the national government has 
trickled down into the government of Philadelphia. The 
Governor, or President, is closely paralleled by the May- 
or, who has similar powers of veto and is equally cut 
off from effective co-operation with the legislative branch 
of government. Councils practically originate nothing, 
as all the skilled work is done by the various heads of 
departments, but, as nearly every act of the city requires 
the passage of an ordinance, councils are continually in 
a position in which they are able to obstruct anything 
they do not like. The number of members is so large 
that it is difficult to fix responsibility upon any particular 
member. Thus we have the unfortunate situation ot al- 
most unlimited power coupled with no responsibility. 
Unless Councils and the Mayor agree as to the best in- 
terests of the city, nothing can be done, since neither 
has power enough to do anything alone. Members can- 
not be made to feel any general responsibility and, on 
account of pressure from local constituents, there is a 
constant tendency for Councils to degenerate into a body 
of log rollers, each member in a scramble to see what he 
can get for his own ward. As a matter of fact almost 
all the work of ruling the city is purely administrative 
in its nature, and does not require the services of a man 
with a commission direct from the people. A great mass 
of councilmanic work consists in opening streets, pro- 
viding for sewers and in work of a similar nature which 
must be done with an eye to the benefit of the city as a 
whole. A newly elected member of the Board of Direc- 
tors of the Pennsylvania Railroad would find the board 
occupied in discussing the policies of the company, and 
he would be considerably amazed should the same body 
of men turn their attention to deciding the exact loca- 
tion of each semaphore, but members of council are ex- 
pected to take a benevolent interest in the placing of each 
lamp post. 



158 STATE .GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

The legislative branch of the Philadelphia city gov- 
ernment consists of two chambers, Select and Common 
Council, and procedure in these bodies must be as formal 
as in the Legislature of the State itself. 2 Representa- 
tion in Common Council is based upon the population of 
the various wards, each 4,000 names upon the assessors 9 
list giving right to one member. Select Council is made 
up of one representative from each ward, and like the 
Senate, has the right to advise the Mayor on the ap- 
pointment of any of the heads of departments and to 
give or withhold consent. ' In one respect there is an 
interesting variation between Councils and its models, 
the State and national Legislatures. There is no official 
to represent the Vice-President or the Lieutenant Gover- 
nor, no vice or assistant Mayor. Beyond this it is diffi- 
cult to discover any respect in which the city government 
does not imitate, or at least try to imitate, that of the 
State and nation. As we have already described at con- 
siderable length the Legislature of the State, we may 
dismiss the Councils of Philadelphia by saying that they 
are close imitations, but that they have less importance 
as they have not the broad range of vital questions to 
consider which come before the State Legislature. 

In the executive department also the city government 
is closely imitative of the State government, but we can- 
not dismiss it in the same way as we have Councils since, 
as a matter of fact, the work of a city is usually very dif- 
ferent from that of the State and requires different 

(2) "No ordinance shall be passed through Councils except by 
bill. No bill shall be so altered or amended on its passage through 
either branch as to change its original purpose. No bill shall be con- 
sidered unless referred to a committee, returned therefrom and printed 
for the use of members, and no bill shall be passed containing any 
more than one subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title.'' 
Act May 23, 1874, P. L. 230, Sec. 3. 

Sec. 4 of the same Act contains more provisions of the same 
nature, all of them evidently copied from the constitutional provisions, 
governing the legislature or from the rules of that body. 



CITIES OF THE FIKST CLASS. 159 

officers to carry it on. If the imitation had been complete 
we should probably have had a Secretary of the City, 
Secretary of Internal Affairs, Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, etc. 3 

Instead of this the executive work of the city is par- 
celled out among eleven executive departments. The heads 
of these departments correspond closely to cabinet offi- 
cers and are required to meet with the Mayor once every 
month. The departments are as follows : 

Department of Public Safety, 
Department of Public Works, 
Department of Receiver of Taxes, 
Department of City Treasurer, 
Department of City Controller, 
Department of Law, 
Department of Supplies, 
Department of Public Health and Charities, 
Department of Wharves, Docks and Ferries, 
Department of City Transit. 
Sinking Fund Commission. 

The Department of Public Safety manages the most 
obvious part of the city government, for it controls the 
most visible of the city employees, police and firemen, al- 
though policing and fire quenching do not exhaust its 
activities. Its work is divided among seven bureaus, 
viz. : Police, fire, electrical, building inspection, boiler 
inspection, correction and elevator inspection. 

Next in point of general interest comes the Depart- 
ment of Public Works. This also is organized by 
bureaus. The Bureau of City Property has charge of 
the immense amount of real estate owned by the city it- 
self, City Hall, Independence Hall and numerous mar- 
kets, parks and squares. The Bureau of Highways only 
lays down and repairs streets and roads, and the Bureau 
of Street Cleaning keeps them clean and removes ashes 

(3) The Secretary of Agriculture would not be so absurd, since 
in value of agricultural produce the County of Philadelphia compares 
well with any other County. See various reports of the Secretary of 
Agriculture of Pennsylvania. 



160 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

and domestic waste. In the most literal sense this 
bureau comes home to the householder, and much of his 
idea of municipal efficiency is based on what he sees of 
its activity. The Bureau of Gas has charge of the techni- 
cal side of watching over the city's interests in the mat- 
ter of the gas works which belong to it and which are 
now leased to the United Gas Improvement Company. 
The Bureau of Lighting attends to the street lights. The 
Bureau of Surveys has charge of the city plan. It is 
seldom recognized what an enormous amount of survey- 
ing work is involved in laying out and grading the 
streets, building sewers and giving property lines to real 
estate owners. This bureau is little before the public, 
but the city would soon be in a fearful snarl without it. 
Probably the most vital and constant necessity of the 
people is the water supply. The provision for this is 
under the charge of the Bureau of Water. The pumping 
and purification of sufficient water for the city of Phila- 
delphia is a great manufacturing business and calls for 
the highest skill as well as the most unremitting atten- 
tion, since accidents are likely to happen at any time 
and some quiet street corner be transformed in an instant 
into a geyser rivalling Old Faithful. 

Philadelphia is an enormous buyer of material, but 
for many years was not able to enjoy to the fullest ex- 
tent the economy that may be obtained by purchasing in 
bulk. Until comparatively recently every department 
purchased its own material, but since the establishment 
of the Department of Supplies 4 most of the purchases 
of the city are made by it. There can be no doubt that 
an appreciable saving has been made in this way. 

The growing realization of the responsibility of the 
government for the health of the citizens which resulted 
in the State in the creation of the Department of Health, 
is represented in the city by the Department of Public 



(4) Act April 4, 1903, P. L. 153. 



CITIES OF THE FIKST CLASS. 161 

Health and Charities. This department comprises two 
bureaus, that of Health and that of Charities, corres- 
ponding to the two branches of its activities. 

The city of Philadelphia, as well as the State of Penn- 
sylvania, has been very slow in awakening to the value 
of the situation of Philadelphia as a seaport. For a long 
time the fact that almost all the water front was con- 
trolled by property owners, chief of whom were the rail- 
roads, prevented the city from developing adequate 
wharfage facilities. By the creation of the Department 
of Wharves, Docks and Ferries and the clothing of the 
city with the right of eminent domain over water front 
property, it is rapidly acquiring a system of modern 
wharves available for all commerce. When the extensive 
system of wharves and docks now under way is com- 
pleted, Philadelphia as a seaport will bear comparison 
with any other in the world. 

The baby among the departments is the Department 
of City Transit. Philadelphia has lagged far behind the 
other big cities in the matter of adequate transit facili- 
ties and city regulation of the companies supplying this 
service. It has long been apparent that something must 
be done, and a wise beginning was made when the Legis- 
lature 5 equipped the city with a full department for the 
sole purpose of handling the question from the city's 
point of view. Already a comprehensive system of un- 
derground and overhead rapid transit is under construc- 
tion, and eventually the city will be bound together in all 
its parts by cheap and swift means of communication, 
and there will follow an expansion of the city which 
will forever confirm its proud boast to be the City of 
Homes. 

Of the Departments of Eeceiver of Taxes, of City 
Treasurer and of City Controller it is not necessary to 
speak at length, as their mere names indicate sufficiently 

(5) Act May 9, 1913, P. L. 188. 
n 



162 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

the scope of their duties, but one peculiar fact about the 
City Treasurer and City Controller should be mentioned. 
They are called the City Treasurer and City Controller. 
They are made heads of the Departments of City Treas- 
urer and City Controller by the Bullitt Act, and yet they 
are not city officers, but officers of the County of Phila- 
delphia. 6 

The analogy between a city and a State breaks down 
again when we begin to look for a judicial department 
in the city. Since the city is not a State, it can have no 
real judicial department, but the Department of Law 
carries out as far as possible the idea of a judiciary. Pri- 
marily, the City Solicitor is the city's attorney, repre- 
senting it and each of its departments. Consequently 
his opinion has all the force of law unless overruled by 
an actual judicial decision. 

The Sinking Fund Commission has charge of the 
funds set aside to meet the city bonds at maturity. 

Having mentioned the departments, we must say 
something about several city activities which do not come 
under any of them. 

A recent addition to the functions of the city is the 
Art Jury. 7 This is the bulwark of the city against bad 
art. Official art has never been held in very high 
esteem, but in the past not much else could have been 
expected, for those in charge of the execution of public- 
works were usually chosen for other capabilities than 
sensitiveness to esthetic impressions. Still, if the city 
selects unesthetic administrators, it might be said that 
it should abide by the result, but how could it protect 
itself against the dying collector? Since the creation of 
the Art Jury no work of art can become the property 
of the city by purchase, gift or otherwise, without its 
design and its proposed location having received the 

(6) Bonnell vs. Philadelphia, 48 Pa. Supr. Ct. 456. Taggart v. 
Com. 102 Pa. 354. 

(7) Act May 25, 1907, P. L. 249. 



CITIES OF THE FIRST CLASS. 163 

stamp of approval of the Art Jury. As membership in 
the Art Jury carries with it no emoluments, it is hoped 
that the bread-and-butter brigade can be made to observe 
its distance. 

A minor activity of the city, yet one which is clearly 
indicative of the increasing' care of the city for the com- 
fort and happiness of its citizens is the Board of Recre- 
ation. 8 This Board is composed of the Mayor, Director 
of Public Health and Charities and five citizens. It has 
charge of the city's playgrounds, recreation centres, pub- 
lic baths, and similar matters. 

There is one branch of the city's government that 
needs sympathetic description because it is the least 
understood yet the most blamed, the Civil Service Com- 
mission. That an army, the armed servant of the State, 
can make itself master of the State was known at least 
as far back as the time of the Pretorian guards, and an 
army master has been feared by free peoples ever since. 
It has remained for modern times to bring to full flower 
a system whereby the civilian servants of the State have 
banded themselves together to rule it. This is the most 
sinister of the problems which have given rise to the 
need for civil service reform, although always accom- 
panying it is the problem, important enough in itself, of 
how to get for the people a fair return in industry and 
ability for the wages paid. It is bad enough in a free 
country to be ruled by any selfish combination, but there 
is something particularly galling in the rule of a set of 
men who are paid for service and protection. It is bad 
enough to be taxed, but to have taxes wasted in in- 
efficient service while the servants give their time 
and energy to fastening themselves and their kind 
continually on the taxpayer, heaps injury on in- 
jury. Both the evils of officeholder rule and 

(8) Act June 9, 1911, P. L. 739. Amended by Act May 3, 1917, 
P. L. 



164 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

official incompetency flow from the same weakness 
in our system of managing pnblic affairs, the 
fact that the test which is applied in the selection of pub- 
lic servants is irrelevant to the work to be performed. 
Even in electing to office the motives of the voter fre- 
quently have little connection with the question of the 
fitness of the candidate for the work in hand, but in ap- 
pointing there has grown up in the country a thoroughly 
worked, out method, with a philosophy of its own, known 
as the spoils system. This system and its battle cry is 
so familiar to and so heartily believed in by practical 
politicians that when a doubt is expressed as to its pro- 
priety, they feel that they have triumphantly annihilated 
the doubter by announcing, "To the victors belong the 
spoils." The evil of this system is apparent in its name. 
No office could be considered in the light of spoils unless 
its emoluments were greater than the encumbent could 
command in the competitive market. A thousand dollars 
a year job would seem rich spoils to a man unable to 
earn more than two dollars a day otherwise; but a ten 
thousand dollar a year job would not look like spoils to 
a leader in the engineering profession. The spoils system 
confesses in its name that it proposes to fill all the offices 
with men below the standard set by the market of the 
business world. It also confesses that the way to secure 
office is not by fitting one's self for it but by becoming a 
successful warrior. 

The remedy for the situation is plain. To substitute 
as a test for office holding something that will be rele- 
vant; to raise the slogan, "To the worthy shall be given 
an opportunity to serve." To discover who are worthy — 
ah! there's the rub. To ask each applicant whether he 
were fit would be to rule out only the modest, a most un- 
fortunate discrimination. Obviously the best method is 
to throw the burden upon the applicant of proving that 
he is fit, and to make him so prove by actually doing some 



CITIES OF THE FIKST CLASS. 165 

of the work which his position will require. Of course, 
if there are more applicants than places, the best should 
be chosen. To state it more concretely, the applicant 
should be examined as to his fitness and his examination 
should be strictly germane. The system which does this 
is called the merit system. It has the threefold advan- 
tage that it secures fit public servants, preserves them 
and the appointing officer from political pressure, and 
the people from machine domination. Such is the mean- 
ing of civil service reform. Few can now be found to 
dispute it theoretically. When we come into the realm 
of practice difficulties crop up as they are apt to do in the 
translation of any theory into actuality. 

The first difficulty is to secure a pure fountainhead. 
It is well understood that machinery alone will not se- 
cure a reform — there must be a good will directing it. 
The executive who has the task of selecting the officials, 
called commissioners, who have charge of the examin- 
nations of civil service, must desire the success of the 
system. Then there is the difficulty of providing an ex- 
amination that actually will enable the fit man to prove 
his fitness. Many stories are afloat as to the absurd ques- 
tions asked in civil service examinations. Many of these 
stories are easily demonstrated falsehoods, and whatever 
of truth there is in any of them probably represents early 
attempts before all the conditions of the problem were 
realized. Being educated men themselves, the commis- 
sioners are apt to identify too closely the answering of 
written questions with an examination. An "examina- 
tion" is simply a looking into, and any method is to be 
resorted to which will have the result of revealing the 
desired information. The modern civil service examina- 
tion leaves little to be desired in this way. It is realized 
that the way to find out whether a man is a good cook 
for the public hospitals is to watch him cook and then eat 
the result. The laborers labor, the pavers and rammers 



166 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

pave and ram, the carpenters work at carpentering and 
the civil engineers draw, figure and theorize. In all 
cases a definite and important weight is given to experi- 
ence. Considerable complaint is heard that the exami- 
nations can only be passed by the college bred, or young- 
sters just out of school, while adults taught in the school 
of experience have no chance. On analysis, any specific 
complaint of this kind will generally be found to origi- 
nate with an unsuccessful applicant who has been sur- 
prised at the high order of merit the public expects under 
the rational system. Having felt himself equal to filling 
the position, since, under the old system worse men than 
he have filled it, he is dismayed at an examination he has 
not the ability to pass. But others have the ability and 
the service gets the benefit. 

A more reasonable criticism urges that there are cer- 
tain qualities in men too subtle to be detected by any ex- 
amination, which are nevertheless of the highest im- 
portance, such as temper and general attitude of the 
prospective employee, his trustworthiness and willing- 
ness. Every administrative officer feels instinctively 
that he is a judge of these things and that an examina- 
tion cannot discriminate as to them. The merit system 
admits that there is something in this idea, and provides 
accordingly. Instead of forcing the executive to be con- 
tent with the man standing highest on the list, he is per- 
mitted untrammeled choice among the first four. Since 
all have passed, the presumption is that they are fit, and 
it is not likely that all would lack the subtle qualifications 
in question. Further, positions of a specially confiden- 
tial nature are exempt from examination. In such case 
the executive officer feels a special responsibility and is 
trusted to make a good selection. Also in such cases the 
unexaminable qualifications are particularly important. 
But when it comes to the rank and file of the thousands 
of city positions it would be folly to expect that an execu- 



CITIES OF THE FIRST CLASS. 167 

tive officer either could or would make as adequate a test 
of the applicant's fitness as the Civil Service Commis- 
sion can. 

Arrayed on the side of the merit system are all peo- 
ple disinterestedly interested in public affairs, against it 
are all interestedly interested. 

A devoted band of men of ideals, known as the Civil 
Service Eeform Association, has kept the flame of this 
ideal alight. For more than a generation they have been 
striving to have the State follow the footsteps of the 
nation in adopting the merit system, but the spoilsmen 
are well entrenched. The association, however, did suc- 
ceed in connecting the merit system in the public mind 
with the idea of reform, and they were also ready with 
an extremely well worked out bill, so that when the Legis- 
lature sat in sackcloth and ashes in 1906 and was search- 
ing for reforms that it might prove the depth and reality 
of its penitence, the association bill was furnished to it 
and passed almost without change. Under the limita- 
tions of the call for the special session of 1906, the bill 
could only provide for cities of the first class. Cities of 
the second class have since been provided for, as well as 
cities of the third class to a limited degree, and the rest 
of the State awaits the fullness of time. 

Thus the Civil Service Commission with its machin- 
ery of examinations is now part of the government of 
cities of the first class. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



CITIES OF THE SECOXD CLASS. 



IN order to understand the government of cities of the 
second class it is necessary that we should delve 

somewhat into the mysteries of "ripper" legislation. 
Personalities may be entirely disregarded. 

The political issues which were so dark in 1901 have 
now changed, but the record of the use of legislative 
power to serve political ends is imperishably chiseled 
upon the statute book. Up until the session of 1901, 
cities of the second class had mayors like other cities of 
the State, but in that year a Mayor of Pittsburgh occu- 
pied the office who was not pleasing to the powers in con- 
trol of the Legislature. As there was no means of get- 
ting rid of the man, the simple expedient was adopted of 
abolishing the office. Accordingly in that year an elabo- 
rate act was passed entitled, "An Act for the Govern- 
ment of Cities of the Second Class." x The real purpose 
of the act is apjDarent in its first sentence, "In cities of 
second class the executive power shall be vested in a city 
recorder, and in the departments authorized by this act. 
The office of mayor in said cities is hereby abolished." 
Twenty-seven pages later, in the first sentence of the 
schedule appended at the end of the act, appears the de- 
nouement, "Within thirty days from the approval of this 
act, the Governor of this Commonwealth shall, by ap- 
pointment, fill the office of city recorder in each of the 
existing cities of the second class." Thus the duly 
elected chief magistrates of the cities of the second class 
were ripped out of office and gubernatorial appointees 
took their places. The title of recorder must have car- 



(1) Act March 7, 1901, P. L. 20. 
168 



CITIES OF THE SECOND CLASS. 169 

ried with it evil associations, for at the next session of 
the Legislature the name of the office was changed back to 
mayor. 2 

The disgrace of the ripper procedure could not so 
easily be washed away. 

Examining the act of 1901 merely as a piece of legis- 
lation and apart from its ulterior purpose, we find it pro- 
viding for a system of government not unlike the govern- 
ment of cities of the first class. The recorder, or as he 
is now called mayor, has practically the same powers as 
the mayor in Philadelphia. The executive departments 
are as follows: 

Department of Public Safety, 

Department of Public Works, 

Department of Collector of Delinquent Taxes, 

Department of Assessor, 

Department of City Treasurer, 

Department of City Controller, 

Department of Law, 

Department of Charities and Correction, 

Sinking Fund Commission. 

all of which departments are sufficiently described by 
their names. The legislative power is vested in a select 
and common council, bodies with which we are already 
familiar in the case of cities of the first class. There is 
abundant difference of minor details between cities of 
the first and second class, but the framework of govern- 
ment as provided for in this law for cities of the second 
class is practically the same as in cities of the first class. 
With similar forms of government in eastern and 
western ends of the State, there was given an opportun- 
ity for a comparison of the relative political advancement 
of the two sections. While Philadelphia has been con- 
tent to worry along under its archaic system, Pittsburgh 
insisted on having a more modern form of government. 
A tremendous campaign was instituted and the Legisla- 



(2) Act April 23, 1903, P. L. 284. 



170 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

ture of 1911 was prevailed upon to modify the form of 
government of cities of- the second class to include the 
small council. 3 Now, instead of having councils, the 
legislative power of the city is vested in "the council, " 
which consists of not less than five members and has an 
additional member for each 75,000 inhabitants over 200,- 
000. In order that adequate attention shall be given to 
their duties, the councilmen receive a salary, which shall 
not be less than $2,000 nor more than $6,500 a year. The 
powers of this council are quite extensive. They fix the 
salaries of all the city officials and employees who are 
not elected, and approve the appointment of the heads 
of executive departments made by the mayor. They also 
have the power of impeaching the heads of departments. 
The mayor retains the usual veto power. 

It will be at once recognized that this change in the 
law is a very timid step in the direction of the commis- 
sion form of government. The councilmen, although few 
in number, are not executive officers of the city, and for 
this reason bear no real relation to the commissioners 
under the commission form of government. The act as 
finally passed was but the mutilated remains of a much 
more extensive act which included the checks of the initi- 
ative, referendum and recall and other features more 
nearly approximating commission form of government. 
Nevertheless, this change is a distinct step forward and 
makes further improvements easier to secure than would 
be the case if it had never been taken. 



(3) Act May 31. 1911, P. L. 461. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 



CITIES OF THE THIRD CLASS. 



THE most numerous group of cities is the third 
class. In a general way it may be said that all the 
cities in Pennsylvania, except Philadelphia, Pitts- 
burgh and Scranton, belong to this class. Some modifi- 
cation of this statement, however, must be made before 
it is strictly accurate, because there are a number of cities 
which were incorporated before the passage of the act 
first dividing cities into classes, 1 and these were not made 
cities of the third class automatically, but retained their 
former charters until they chose to come into the class 
and be governed by the general laws provided in the 
statute regulating cities of the third class. Conse- 



(1) Act May 23, 1874, P. L. 230. Act May 23, 1889, P. L. 277. 
There, Art. XIX, p. 1, cities of the third class are defined as follows: 
"The term 'cities of the third class' shall include only, 

I. All cities of the proper population which have been in- 
corporated under the provision of an act of assembly, entitled, 
1 An Act dividing the cities of this state into three classes, regulat- 
ing the passage of ordinances, providing for contracts for sup- 
plies and work for said cities, authorizing the increase of in- 
debtedness and the creation of a sinking fund to redeem the 
same, defining and providing certain offences in all of said cities 
and providing for the incorporation and government of the cities 
of the third class', approved May 23, 1874, and which may here- 
after be incorporated under the provisions of this act. 

II. All cities of the proper population which have accepted 
the provisions of the said act of May 23, 1874, in the manner 
prescribed in the fifty-seventh section thereof. 

III. All other cities of the proper population only from and 
after the date of their acceptance of the provisions of the said act 
of May 23, 1874, in the manner prescribed in the fifth section 
thereof. ' ' 

A definition closely similar is found in the act of June 27, 
1913, P. L. 568. 

171 



172 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

quently, there are still some cities which are governed by 
special charters. 

Although no new cities can be chartered unless they 
have a population of at least ten thousand, cities of a less 
population, which were chartered prior to 1874, can ac- 
cept the provisions of the act and become cities of the 
third class. Nor is it true that all corporate communities 
with a population of ten thousand or over are cities of 
third class, because a borough does not automatically 
graduate into a city by attaining to the population of 
ten thousand. It simply achieves the right to become such 
if it pleases, and many of the larger boroughs prefer to 
retain their simpler form of organization. Thus we 
have the anomalous contrast of the borough of Norris- 
town with a population of 27,875 and the city of Corry 
with a population of 5,991. Names, also, are not always 
enlightening, since Ellwoocl City is a borough, as are 
also Fayette City, Ford City, Forest City, Grove City, 
Tower City and Lumber City (population 363). Mahanoy 
City is a borough, though it has population enough to be 
a city (15,936). 

Cities of the third class have shown themselves very 
progressive. For a long time their officers have met in 
annual convention to discuss matters affecting their in- 
terests and from these conventions have emanated many 
ideas which have been adopted by the Legislature. 

Prior to 1913 cities of the third class were governed 
by machinery which was absurdly complex even for a 
city of the first class. All the pomp and circumstance 
of mayor, common and select councils, vetoes, messages 
and other red tape enough to tie up a nation encumbered 
their simple affairs. Everyone intelligently interested in 
the government of these cities had long realized that im- 
provement was necessary. The progressive Legislature 
of 1913 afforded the opportunity for an advance all along 
the line. A comprehensive bill was prepared revolution- 



CITIES OF THE THIRD CLASS. 173 

izing the whole method of government and was finally 
passed, though not without difficulty and after suffering 
some alterations. 2 The leaven of progress, having had 
two more years to work since the provision for cities of 
the second class, produced better results. 

The legislative power is concentrated in a council, 
which is composed of the mayor and four councilmen. 
The mayor is elected definitely to that office. The mayor 
is president of council, and serves four years, the council- 
men serving two. The mayor votes at council meetings, 
but cannot veto any measure adopted by the affirmative 
vo'te of a majority of all elected. That is to say, adopted 
by a vote of three members. Presumably if a measure 
were adopted by a vote of 2 to 1 (3 being a quorum), he 
could veto. 3 

A correlative of concentrating all the power in a few 

hands is that they should give continuous attention to the 

work and hence should be paid. The salary is to be 

fixed by council itself but shall not be less than $250 nor 

more than $3,000 per annum. Until the salaries are 

changed by council, the statute fixes them at: 

$ 300 for cities of 15,000 and under 

750 " " " over " " " 30,000. 

2,000 " " " 30,000 " " 50,000. 

2,500 " " " 50,000 " " 70,000. 

3,000 " " " 70,000 " " 100,000. 

Fines may be retained for absence from council meet- 
ings. 

The salary of the mayor is fixed by council, but must 
be not less than $500 nor more than $3,500. Until changed 
by council, it is fixed at : 

$ 500 for cities of 15,000 or under, 
1,200 " " " 15,000 to 30,000. 
2,500 " " " 30,000 " 50,000. 
3,000 " " li 50,000 " 70,000. 
3,500 " " u 70,000 " 100,000. 

(2) Act June 27, 1913, P. L. 568. 

(3) Filling vacancies is provided for in Act April 6, 1917, P. L. 



174 STATE GOVEBNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

The executive and administrative powers are distrib- 
uted among five departments, each of which is headed 
by one of the council. Thus the power and responsibility 
for the administration is concentrated and the difficulty 
created by the attempt to model city government after 
the nation, with its sharp distinction between executive 
and legislative departments, is overcome. 

These departments are named as follows : 

Public Affairs, 

Accounts and Finance, 

Public Safety, 

Streets and Public Improvements, 

Parks and Public Property. 

The exact scope of each department is defined by the 
council and it can assign any particular duty to any de- 
partment. This retains flexibility. The mayor is super- 
intendent of public affairs. The other members of coun- 
cil are assigned to be superintendents of the other depart- 
ments as the council decides. 

The mayor is the chief executive magistrate of the 
city, and is charged with maintaining public peace. To 
this end he has all the power of a sheriff to suppress 
mobs and riots, and can close up saloons in time of threat- 
ened disorder. He has also within the city the criminal 
jurisdiction of an alderman, an officer corresponding to 
a magistrate in Philadelphia or justice of the peace 
throughout the State, as well as certain other powers be- 
longing to him as chief guardian of the peace. Among 
other things he is authorized to solemnize marriages. He 
is also responsible for the city's police force. 

The member of council who is assigned to be superin- 
tendent of accounts and finance has general responsi- 
bility for the finances of the city, must countersign all 
warrants and is directed to suggest to council plans for 
the management and improvement of the city finances. 
The city treasurer is elected by council, and is the em- 
ployee of the city who is in direct charge of the city's. 



CITIES OF THE THIRD CLASS. 175 

funds. He is checked by the city controller who is en- 
tirely independent of council, being elected directly by 
the people. 4 

The statute is not specific concerning the duties of the 
superintendents of the other departments, and it must 
"be confessed that the scheme of government laid down in 
the act is a little vague insofar as the relation of these 
superintendents to the actual working employees is con- 
cerned and as to how far they are to be considered ex- 
ecutive officers rather than mere committees of one, of 
the legislative branch. Thus there is the city solicitor, 
elected by council, who has general charge of the law 
business of the city and is not under the control of any 
superintendent of a department. 

A city engineer is to be elected by councils, and he is 
given extensive powers, but it does not appear that he 
is in any way controlled by any of the superintendents 
of departments. 

The single, small council, with administrative pow- 
ers is perhaps the most striking feature of the form of 
government for cities of the third class, but from an- 
other point of view, other features of the act are more 
interesting. Here we have, 

The non-partisan ballot, 
The initiative, 
The referendum. 

The recall does not appear. 

The intrusion of these newcomers into actual govern- 
mental workings in conservative Pennsylvania is worthy 
of somewhat closer attention. 

Nominations for offices to be rilled in cities of the 
third class are made by petition signed by twenty-five 
voters. No party designation whatever is allowed on 
the petition, and as many nominations can be filed as 
there are candidates with twenty-five supporters. 



(4) Act July 19, 1917, P. L. 



176 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

The names so nominated are then printed on a sepa- 
rate non-partisan ballot which is given to each voter at 
the primary election in addition to the party ballot which 
he selects according to his affiliations. The candidates 
receiving the highest number of votes on this non-parti- 
san ballot, np to twice the number to be elected, become 
the candidates at the municipal election following. 

The position which the name of a candidate occu- 
pies upon a non-partisan ballot has been found to have 
a serious effect upon the result. While it undoubtedly re- 
flects upon the intelligence of the voters, still it is un- 
questionably true that the name at the top has a real 
advantage from that reason alone, and other names in 
proportion to their nearness to the top. Some rule of 
placing must be adopted, else this advantage would be 
given by favoritism. The non-partisan law by which 
judges and officers of cities of the second class are elected 
secures at least impartiality by placing the names alpha- 
betically. This, however, does not remove unfairness, 
it simply bestows the advantage on an accident of nomen- 
clature. Under such a system, if John Adams were run- 
ning against George Washington, Adams would be 
elected. The law ■ under consideration governing elec- 
tions in cities of the third class simply robs Peter to pay 
Paul. For the accident of nomenclature it substitutes 
the purer accident of the lot. There is no more reason 
why a man should be elected to office because he pulls the 
longest straw than because his name is Aaron Aarons. 
Both reasons are irrelevant. The only proper method, 
and one which has been adopted in some States where 
non-partisan voting is used, is to change the position of 
the names on different ballots in a regular way, so that 
each name will occupy each position a proper number 
of times. Thus the unintelligent voters are pitted 
against each other and neutralize each other's votes so 
that the decision lies with those who vote intelligently. 



CITIES OF THE THIRD CLASS. 177 

At the municipal election the names of candidates suc- 
cessful at the primary are placed on the official ballot 
in a place by themselves, their positions here, too, de- 
termined by lot, and the voter marks his choice individ- 
ually, his straight vote for the remainder of his ticket 
having no effect on this part. 

The initiative is provided for as follows : Any group 
of one hundred qualified electors may require the city 
clerk to prepare a petition accompanying a proposed 
ordinance. Notice of this petition is published in the 
newspapers and the petition lies at the office of the city 
clerk, where it may be signed by all qualified voters who 
care to do so. The petition cannot be carried around by 
agents, paid or otherwise, who obtain signatures by im- 
portunity, thus removing one of the chief objections to 
the use of petitions in governmental matters. If at the 
end of ten days the petition has been signed by 20 per 
cent, of the number of voters who voted for all candi- 
dates for mayor at the last preceding municipal election, 
the petition and ordinance is submitted to council. If 
it is not so numerously signed, ten more days are given 
for another trial, and if the friends of the measure can- 
not succeed by that time, the proceeding is exhausted. 
If they desire to try again, they must begin from the 
beginning. 

When a properly signed petition with a proposed 
ordinance has been presented to council, that body has 
two alternatives, either to pass the ordinance unamended 
within twenty clays, or call a special election (unless a 
general or municipal election falls within ninety days), 
at which the ordinance is referred to the people. 

When such an ordinance has been adopted by the peo- 
ple, it cannot be amended or repealed by council for two 
years, without another vote of the people. 

Not more than two special elections for voting on 
initiative ordinances may be held in any year. 

12 



178 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

The referendum operates upon measures proposed 
and adopted by council. No ordinance goes into effect 
(with certain exceptions for urgency) until ten days after 
it is adopted, and ordinances granting franchises cannot 
go into effect until thirty days after adoption. In the 
meanwhile a twenty per cent, petition against the measure 
may be presented. On receiving this gentle suggestion 
that their measure is not popular, council may recon- 
sider, but if they are obdurate and cling to their ordi- 
nance, it must be submitted to the people, and its fate 
is settled by them. 

As though suggesting a doubt about the advisability 
of allowing really important measures to be subject to 
referendum, the statute provides that it cannot be in- 
voked against any tax levy, nor to the annual appro- 
priation ordinance, nor to any ordinance providing for 
the exercise of the right of eminent domain. 

The foregoing brief description shows that Pennsyl- 
vania cities of the third class now have all the five es- 
sentials of a commission form of government, as laid 
down by the writer quoted in a former chapter, 5 the 
small governing body, their election at large, combination 
of executive and legislative powers, the assignment of 
each commissioner to a department, and the checks de- 
signed to secure popular control. As an additional mark 
of progress, cities of the third class have a somewhat 
restricted but nevertheless valuable system of appoint- 
ment of employees under the merit system. 6 

(5) Chapter XIV, p. 150. 

(6) Act May 3, 1917, P. L. Act June 20, 1917, P. L. 
Act July 16, 1917, P. L. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



IN Pennsylvania, the borough is the simplest of the 
municipal corporations that govern closely settled 
localities, and is ordinarily the smallest, though 
some boroughs are larger than some cities. 

Originally boroughs were incorporated by special act, 
but a general act for their incorporation was early 
adopted. 1 Since that time a great mass of amendatory 
and supplementary legislation accumulated, but was all 
swept away, and a single comprehensive statute passed 
in 1915 which compressed 260 acts or parts of acts into 
one, "The General Borough Act. 2 

A scattered population has no need for local govern- 
ment, beyond what is provided by the township. But 
it frequently happens that for one reason or another 
groups of people gather and soon a little cluster of 
houses appears. A town or village has been formed, but 
nothing yet recognized by the law as an entity differing 
from the township of which it forms a part. With the 
closer grouping come the problems of local government, 
questions of paving, lighting, sewering and policing, and 
as the embryonic form of township government cannot 
supply organization enough to meet these, it is necessary 
to carve out of the township that part of its territory 
which feels the pressure of such problems and form it 
into a borough. This surgical operation is painful to the 



(1) Act April 1, 1834, P. L. 163. 

(2) Act May 14, 1915, P. L. 312, amended by Act Miay 10, 1917, 
P. L. and Act July 6, 1917, P. L. The drafting of this 
act is part of the valuable work being done by the Legislative Re- 
ference Bureau described above. 

179 



180 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

remainder of the township, since the richest field for the 
tax gatherer is to be f onnd in the portion of the township 
which desires to become a borough, and hence there is 
usually opposition to the formation of the borough, but 
as the thickly settled part has probably grown tired of 
paying for the repair of the roads throughout the town- 
ship, while unable to get a sewer system for itself, it is 
apt to persist. The question is settled by the Court of 
Quarter Sessions of the county. When a majority of the 
real estate owners of the area which it it proposed to cut 
off and to erect into a borough present a petition for that 
purpose, the court considers the matter and grants or re- 
fuses the petition as seems to it best. It is in this way 
that new boroughs are created at the present time. There 
are many boroughs in existence which have been created 
by special act of the Legislature, and many which, al- 
though originally so created, have accepted the provis- 
ions of and so come under the general borough laws. In 
considering the effect of laws passed to regulate bor- 
oughs it must be constantly remembered that there are 
many places called boroughs, which will not be affected 
by such laws, because they have been created by special 
statute, and hence though called boroughs, do not be- 
long to the family of boroughs which come under the 
terms of laws regulating boroughs generally. 

Some laws, however, which regulate affairs of State- 
wide interest happening in boroughs (as, for instance, 
election matters), would, when mentioning boroughs, in- 
clude them all, whether incorporated under special or 
general act. There is here ground for much difficulty 
and dispute, and any particular question about it can 
only be answered by a lawyer, or court, but it is well for 
the general reader interested in boroughs to know about 
it, so that he will not be misled when urging or opposing 
legislation in which the name borough appears. The fol- 



181 

lowing description of boroughs refers to those coming 
under the General Borough Act. 

As boroughs are usually comparatively small, 3 their 
form of government is simple, but they preserve the 
familiar distinction between executive and legislative 
departments. In this respect the new borough code 
would seem to be retrogressive, but it must be remem- 
bered that this act did not attempt to add anything new,, 
it simply codified the existing laws. 

The chief executive officer is called the Burgess, rem- 
iniscent of the historic burgomaster. The act does not 
state that the inhabitants are called burghers. True 
to the theory running through most of our governmental 
arrangements, the separation between the departments 
is made complete. The burgess is not a member of the 
council nor does he preside at its meetings, except the 
meeting for organization. In order to prevent his be- 
coming a local despot, he may not hold any other borough 
offices, and it was originally provided that he could not 
succeed himself, but this latter provision was aban- 
doned. 4 

The principal duty of a burgess is that of a peace 
officer. He has the powers of a justice of the peace in 
enforcing borough ordinances and in riots, tumults and 
disorderly meetings. He also directs the borough police, 
but the appointment and discharge of policemen are re- 
tained by the council. 

The burgess is a salaried officer, his compensation 
being fixed by the council, but the maximum is fixed by 
statute on a sliding scale of population ($100 per thou- 
sand for the first one thousand and $50 for each thou- 
sand additional). 

As befits the small population and simple government 

(3) The largest is Norristown with a population in 1910 of 
27,875, and from that they dwindle in population to a few hundred. 

(4) Act March 30, 1917, P. L. 



182 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

of boroughs, the officials are few. The appointive officers 
(appointed by councils) are treasurer, solicitor, secre- 
tary of council, one or two street commissioners and 
policemen. The elective officers are burgess, high con- 
stable and three auditors or a controller. As explained 
before in connection with counties, the difference be- 
tween auditors and controllers is that the auditors con- 
duct a sort of post mortem over the accounts of the ac- 
counting officer, while a controller examines and ap- 
proves any payment before it is made. As a controller 
must be at his office every day it costs more to maintain 
his office than that of auditor, so only the larger bor- 
oughs have controllers. By recent legislation boroughs 
are given power to create the office of Borough Mana- 
ger. 5 

In boroughs too small to be divided into wards, there 
are seven councilmen. 

In boroughs divided into wards, there are at least one 
and not more than three councilmen from each ward, 
the number varying according to circumstance. As the 
number of wards in a borough is never large, the council 
is always a relatively small body. The burgess and mem- 
bers of council serve for four years. Half of council is 
renewed every two years. 

Boroughs have power over the streets, water supply, 
garbage, police, fire prevention, regulation of buildings, 
nuisances and eminent domain. 

In many statutes regulating the affairs of boroughs, 
we find mention also of "incorporated towns." In the 
early days when everything incorporated had a special 
charter, there were a number of communities which were 
incorporated as the town of so and so. For all practical 
purposes they were the same as boroughs and had the 
same needs, but unless mentioned, they were not covered 
by statutes passed for boroughs. Frequently they were 



(5) Act June 25, 1917, P. L. 



183 

forgotten and left out in the cold. One by one they aban- 
doned their position of splendid isolation and came un- 
der the shelter of the general borough act. One only, 
Bloomsburg, has remained obdurate, and is still a town. 
Consequently, when a law is passed relating to boroughs, 
it is necessary to add "and incorporated towns," lest 
Bloomsburg be slighted. It is to be hoped that the citi- 
zens of Bloomsburg derive sufficient satisfaction from 
their exclusive position to justify the pains which the 
Legislature must take to see that they are properly pro- 
vided for. 

TOWNSHIPS. 

The township, in Pennsylvania, is the municipal cor- 
poration which attends to local government in all parts 
of the county not provided for by some of the more high- 
ly organized forms of municipal corporations. Com- 
plexity of organization is proportionate to density of 
population, and as the more thickly settled parts of a 
county are organized into boroughs or cities, the remain- 
ing territory, the background, so to speak, of the county, 
is sparsely settled and hence needs no very highly or- 
ganized municipal corporation to care for its govern- 
mental needs. In New England, the township, or town, 
as they call it, 1 was the original unit and the State grew 
up out of the towns. Massachusetts was not created by 
anybody's decree. First the Pilgrims came over and 
made the town of Plymouth, and then other Puritans 
came over and set up the town of Boston, and other 
groups formed other towns, and after a while the several 
towns came to be recognized as the Colony of Massachu- 
setts. 2 



(1) This use of the word town will explain what is so puzzling 
to a stranger, when a wayside farmer tells him that he is in the town 
of X, though not a house be in sight. 

(2) The gift of seeing ourselves as others see us is occasion- 



184 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

Pennsylvania townships are of two kinds, Townships 
of the First and Second Class. The latter class, the com- 
mon or garden variety of township, is the lowliest form 
of corporation for the purpose of local government. It 
has no centres of population, except a little knot of 
houses around some cross roads, and most of its terri- 



ally given in the writings of foreigners who take the trouble really 
to understand what they observe. De Tocqueville, who came to 
America to see how a democracy actually worked, was very much 
interested in the New England townships, and treats of them 
at considerable length. The practical citizen is advised to read 
"Democracy in America", the fruit of his observation. The follow- 
ing two paragraphs will show how clearly he understood his 
subject : 

"In New England townships were completely and definitely 
constituted as early as 1650. The independence of the township 
was the nucleus round which the local interests, passions, rights 
and duties collected and clung. It gave scope to the activity of 
a real political life, thoroughly democratic and republican. The 
colonies still recognized the supremacy of the mother country; 
monarchy was still the law of the State; but the republic was 
already established in every township. 

"The towns named their own magistrates of every kind, 
rated themselves, and levied their own taxes. In the New Eng- 
land town, the law of representation was not adopted; but the 
affairs of the community were discussed, as at Athens, in the 
market-place, by a general assembly of the citizens." 

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, Translation 
by Henry Reeve, New York, The Century Company, 1898, p. 50. 

Another distinguished writer nearly two generations later 
observed the same conditions still existing. James Bryce in his 
chapter on Local Government in "The American Commonwealth," 
clearly describes the place of the township in the American 
scheme of government, its primal importance in New England, 
its practical absence in the South, and a compromise between 
the two systems in the West, where the streams of immigration 
from the two sections met. He also treats of the Pennsylvania 
system, grouping it with the states compromised between the 
New England and Southern systems, but gives it very little at- 
tention. Chapter XLYIII, ed. of 1889. 

Changing conditions often produce degeneration in institu- 
tions once most fitted to serve their purpose. A recent writer, 
referring to the size of legislative bodies in America, says, "If 
undue size is a political sin, the worst sinners are the New Eng- 



BOROUGHS, TOWNS AND TOWNSHIPS. 185 

tory is made up of regions entirely rural. The care of 
the roads is its chief duty, and its chief officers are the 
supervisors. In addition there are assessors, tax col- 
lectors, treasurers and secretaries. 3 Besides looking out 
for the roads, the supervisors have charge of the poor 
relief, unless that duty is lodged elsewhere, as it fre- 
quently is. Of this we will speak later. They also have 
the power to appoint policemen when authorized by the 
Court of Quarter Sessions. 4 The number of supervisors 
in each township is three. 

Townships have no representative assembly, nor 
single executive, nor do the people meet in town meet- 
ing; they simply elect their officers, who have only the 
powers given them by statute. Thus it is evident that 
the Pennsylvania township has no such vigorous politi- 
cal life as the New England town. The tendency is all 
toward lessening the functions of the ordinary township. 
On the one hand the county and State are more and more 
taking charge of the roads, and the county of the poor 
relief, while on the other hand there is no development 
of the ordinary township through growth of population, 
because as soon as the population becomes sufficient, the 
township graduates into a township of the first class, 
which is a very different kind of a thing. 

A township of the first class is the evolutionary link 



land states, which have in their six lower houses 1,401 members, 
besides 198 in the senates. This is due to their unfortunate em- 
phasis on the importance of the town, once the pride but now 
the bane of New England politics," and again, "It seems plain 
from the Constitutions that the town system of New England 
is dying. It is not imitated outside of that section, and within 
that section is in a condition of inefficiency and decrepitude. " 

American State Constitutions, by James Quayle Dealey, 
Ph. D., Ginn & Company, 1915. 

(3) The laws regulating townships have been codified, and greatly 
simplified by the passage of "The General Township Act." Act 
July 14, 1917, P. L. 

(4) Act April 5, 1917, P. L. 



186 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

between a township and a borough. As a half developed 
tadpole has both legs and tail, so a township of the first 
class has the structure of a township and the powers of 
a borough. It is the solution of the question, what shall 
we do with the suburbs of our big cities ? Where the peo- 
ple cluster thickly enough, a borough may be erected, 
but as the suburban population niters into wide reaches 
around the large cities there soon arise large areas which 
are not closely enough settled to make a borough, but 
which have many more needs than could be met by the 
rudimentary organization of the township. For a long 
time such districts suffered from insufficient govern- 
ment, but in 1899 the matter was taken in hand and pro- 
vision made for townships of the first class. 5 The quali- 
fication for a township of the first class is to have a popu- 
lation of at least 300 per square mile, all other townships 
being relegated to the second class. When the census 
shows the requisite population, a township is of the first 
class whether it wants to be or not. The place of the 
supervisors in ordinary townships is taken by township 
commissioners. Usually there are five of these. If the 
township has more than five election districts, there is 
an additional commissioner for each additional election 
district. As in ordinary townships, there is a township 
treasurer, township clerk and township auditors. The 
township commissioners have almost the power of a city 
council in their authority over grading and paving 
streets, passing ordinances and laying fines for their 
violation and in their care for the public safety and pub- 
lic health. 6 



(5) Act April 28, 1899, P. L. 104. Since repealed and replaced 
by the General Township Act, supra. 

(6) By Act of May 29, 1907, P. L. 302, townships of the first 
class are required to appoint boards of health, which are to have 
the powers of boards of health of cities of the third class. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

POOK DISTKICTS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 

THE poor we have always with us. Consequently, 
it is to be expected that the law governing the 
care of the poor will run parallel with the history 
of the State, and this is exactly what we find. Pennsyl- 
vania was still a very new settlement and land was still 
abundant and cheap for anyone who would take the 
trouble to cut the trees, when the number of poor need- 
ing relief was sufficiently great to require the passage of 
a general act covering the subject. The whole of the 
first paragraph of this act is given because of the quaint 
enacting clause in use in Colonial times. 

"An Act for the Relief of the Poor. For the better relief 
of the poor of this province. 

[Section I.] Be it enacted by John Evans, Esquire, by the 
Queen's royal approbation Lieutenant-Governor under William 
Penn, Esquire, absolute Proprietary and Governor-in-Chief of 
the Province of Pennsylvania and Territories, by and with the 
advice and consent of the freemen of the said Province in General 
Assembly met, and by the authority of the same. That the 
justices of the peace of the respective counties of this province, 
or any three or more of them shall, on the five-and-twentieth day 
of March, yearly (unless that shall happen on the First day of 
the week, and then on the day following) meet at some convenient 
place within their county, and there nominate and appoint one, 
two or more (as the case may require) of (the) substantial in- 
habitants of the respective townships; and where the townships 
are small and inhabitants few, two or more, as the justices shall 
think fit, may be joined together within their county to be over- 
seers of the poor of the said townships for the year ensuing-. 1 

(1) Act January 12, 1706. Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, 
Yol. II, page 251. Calvin G. Beitel, author of "A Treatise on the 
Poor Laws of Pennsylvania", Philadelphia 1899, says, "The earliest 
legislation on record, for the relief of the poor of Pennsylvania, was 
•enacted by the Colonial Assembly A. D. 1700, and was entitled, 'An 
Act for the better provision of the poor'. This is a reference to the 

187 



188 STATE GOVEKNME^T IN" PENNSYLVANIA. 

After providing for the appointment of overseers of 
the poor, the act proceeds to give these officers the power 
to levy taxes and collect them; it also provides that the 
father and grandfather and the mother and grandmother 
and the children of every pauper shall be required to 
maintain them. It also gives authority to the overseers, 
with the consent of two or more justices of the peace, to 
apprentice children who are public charges. This act 
gives to the mayor and aldermen of the city of Phila- 
delphia within the limits of their jurisdiction the same 
powers as the overseers of the poor. 

As the population, and consequently, the number of 
dependents grew, the first simple act proved insufficient. 
A considerable number of special acts were passed, but 
just a few years prior to the Eevolution the whole mat- 
ter was taken up anew and an extensive and detailed 
act was passed, 2 the preamble of which states, "Where- 
as the laws hitherto made for the relief of the poor have 
not answered all the good purposes that were expected 
from them." This act continues the system of local 
overseers of the poor. Apparently experience had led 
them to believe that there would be some shirking of duty 
by those elected overseers. Consequently, we find prac- 
tical citizenship in those patriotic days enforced by the 
following provision : 

"Sec. XIII. And be it further enacted by the authority 
aforesaid, That if any person appointed as overseer of the poor 
of the City of Philadelphia shall refuse or neglect to take upon 
him the said office, he shall forfeit twenty pounds to the over- 
seers of the poor of said county for the use of the poor thereof; 



Act of November 27, 1700, Statutes at Large, Vol. II, p. 20. This is 
a short act laying the duty of relieving the poor on the justices of the 
peace and the overseer of the poor of the respective counties. The 
use of the term ' overseer of the poor' without explanation, would 
seem to indicate that there had been previous legislation creating 
such officials." 

(2) Act March 9, 1771, Statutes at Large of Penna. Vol. VIII, 
p. 75. 



POOE DISTKICTS AND SCHOOL DISTKICTS. 189 

and if any person appointed as overseer of the poor of any 
borough, township or place shall refuse or neglect to take upon 
him the said office, he shall forfeit five pounds to the overseer; 
of the poor of the said borough, township or place for the use 
of the poor thereof; and the said forfeitures shall be levied b\ 
warrant from any two justices of the peace of the county, of any 
two magistrates of the City of Philadelphia respectively, under 
their hands and seals, on the goods and chattels of such person 
or persons so. neglecting or refusing, and sold within three days 
next after such distress made; and if there happen any overplus 
upon sales thereof, the same shall be paid to the owner or 
owners; reasonable charges being first deducted; and if such per- 
son or persons so neglecting or refusing as aforesaid, shall not 
have goods or chattels whereby he or they may be distrained as 
aforesaid, that then the said justices may commit the offender 
or offenders to prison, there to remain without bail or mainprise 
till the said forfeitures shall be fully satisfied and paid." 

In this act we have the first germ of the law which 
has since developed into a considerable system and is 
administered in the domestic relations court, "And 
whereas it sometimes happens that men separate them- 
selves without reasonable cause from their wives and 
desert their children, and women also desert their chil- 
dren, leaving them a charge upon the said cities or upon 
some borough, township or place aforesaid, although 
such person may have estate which would contribute to 
the maintenance of such wives or children, ' ' then the act 
goes on to provide that such people may be properly 
dealt with. This act differs principally from its simpler 
predecessor in most elaborate provisions for determin- 
ing the settlement of a pauper, that is, the particular 
place that must be responsible for him. The pauper 
community must have been felt to be a very considerable 
burden, or such care would not be exercised to see that it 
was fairly distributed. 

By section 15, poor districts are erected into munici- 
pal corporations. As the distinction between the munici- 
pal corporation and a mere descriptive division of the 
State is always a little difficult to grasp, especially where 
the municipal corporation is of such a simple nature as 



190 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

the poor district, it will be worth while to repeat the very 
words of the statute which started poor districts on their 
career as full fledged municipal corporations : 

Sec. XY. And be it further enacted by the authority a ore- 
said, that the said overseers of the poor for the city, boroughs, 
district and townships aforesaid for the time being respectively 
shall forever thereafter, in name and in fact, be and they are 
hereby declared to be bodies politic and corporate in law to all 
intents and purposes and shall have perpetual succession, and 
by the name of overseers of the poor of the said city, boroughs 
district and townships may sue and be sued and plead and be 
impleaded in all courts of judicature within this province, and 
by that name shall and may purchase,, take or receive any lands, 
tenements or hereditaments, goods, chattels, sum or sums of 
money not exceeding in the whole, including all gifts, grants, 
devises and bequests heretofore made, the aforesaid yearly value 
of five hundred pounds, to and for the use and benefit of the 
poor of each of the said cities, or each of the said boroughs, dis- 
tricts or townships respectively, of the gift, alienation or devise 
of any person or persons whomsoever, to hold with them the 
said overseers and their successors in the trust for the use of 
the said poor forever. 

The system erected by this act created separate muni- 
cipal corporations for the administration of the poor 
laws out of the city of Philadelphia, its outlying districts 
and the various boroughs and townships of the remain- 
der of the State. It is to be particularly noted that none 
of this work was given to the counties, nor were any poor 
districts made coterminous with the counties. During the 
succeeding century a large amount of special and gen- 
eral legislation was passed on the subject, the chief of 
which was the general act of June 13, 1836, P. L. 539. 
These acts further extended the general system and elab- 
orated on the principles of responsibility of a particular 
district for the relief of the poor, but they did not work 
any essential change in the general system. In 1879, 
however, a complete change of method was inaugurated, 
and the counties, exclusive of incorporated cities, were 
made the poor districts, although the provisions pre- 
viously existing were not abolished until each county had 



POOR DISTRICTS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 191 

made adequate preparations and had so notified the local 
overseers. 3 

SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 

We have here to deal with school districts only as 
they find their place in the scheme of municipal corpor- 
ations, their part in the educational system having been 
covered in a preceding chapter. 4 School districts are of 
four classes, graded according to population, the first 
class composed of those having a population of 500,000 
or more, the second between 30,000 and 500,000, the third 
between 5,000 and 30,000 the fourth less than 5,000. The 
school districts have grown up through a long course of 
legislation. The school code 5 did not reconstruct the 
boundaries of the districts, but simply provided means 
for future change where found desirable. As a rule the 
districts are coterminous with some of the other munici- 
pal corporations of the State, usually the small divisions, 
but sometimes the school districts transcend the bounds 
of the other municipalities and lie in more than one of 
them at the same time. 

There is no question of the school district being a. 
municipal corporation. The school code distinctly pro- 
vides : 

The several school districts in this Common- 
wealth, established by this act, shall be and hereby 
are vested, as bodies corporate, with all necessary 
powers to enable them to carry out the provisions of 
this act. 6 

And again: 

Each school district in this Commonwealth shall 

(3) Act June 4, 1879, P. L. 78. 

(4) Chapter IX. 

(5) Act May 18, 1911, P. L. 309. 

(6) Ibid. See. 119. 



192 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

have the right to sue and be sued in its corporate 
name. Any legal process against any school district 
shall be served on the president or secretary of its 
board of school directors. 7 

School districts are also given power to receive gifts, 
bequests, etc., s to levy and collect taxes 9 and to borrow 
money and issue bonds. 10 The possession of all these 
powers goes to show not only that the school district is 
a municipal corporation, but that it possesses quite a 
high degree of organization. 

Consideration of the description given in the preced- 
ing pages of the various municipal corporations will 
make it clear that all of the various governmental divis- 
ions are not of the same order, not merely "part of the 
government," but are each individual, having each its 
own life and its own rigidly circumscribed sphere of 
action. Over all presides the Commonwealth, giving to 
each all the power that it possesses, and, exercising its 
own power uninterfered with by the existence of its own 
local governmental agents. The high importance of the 
State is thus brought to light and when this importance 
is once grasped it is difficult thereafter to consider State 
affairs as negligible or to treat them with indifference. 

(7) Ibid. Sec. 123. 

(8) Ibid. Sec, 126. 

(9) Ibid. Sec. 402. 

(10) Ibid. Sees. 505, 506, 507, 508. 



CHAPTER XX. 



PAKTIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



THE previous chapters have suggested something 
of the possibilities of the State government for 
good or evil and have indicated the complicated 
and delicate machinery by which it is run. The follow- 
ing will point out the channels through which the action 
of the State may be influenced by the individual. Mere 
criticism is the method adopted by many, a method which 
seldom attains its end. Constant constructive effort is 
required. To become a helper, not a critic, is the first 
step in practical citizenship. When once this step is 
taken there opens an infinite vista of opportunity. The 
remainder of the book will be devoted to assisting the 
citizen who has made up his mind to take some helpful 
part in the affairs of government. 

The first problem encountered in making democracy 
actually work is to find some scheme for securing unity 
of action amid the multiplicity of individual wills. Lack- 
ing this, any agglomeration of human beings would be 
a mob — yes, worse than a mob, for even a mob acts by 
a common impulse and has its collective mob psychology. 
In early days there were times when this unity could be 
attained only by some form of compulsion whereby the 
willing was done by one and obeying by the rest. This 
simple scheme is in vogue to-day in military matters, 
and for effectively achieving its purpose of collective 
action no better scheme has ever been invented. Unfor- 
tunately, the military form of government sacrifices too 
much that we hold dear, so resort must be had to some 
method of securing unity of action which is based on 
the voluntary adhesion of the citizen. The method which 

193 
13 



194 STATE GOVERNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

the experience of mankind has evolved for this purpose 
is the Party. It is a crude instrument at best, but as 
the only one available, it is worthy of careful study. 

A party is a voluntary association of citizens banded 
together for working out in governmental action the 
principles which form the basis of their co-operation. 

Though there are in existence a great enough variety 
of principles to give a basis of cohesion to a large num- 
ber of parties, yet, if every variety of principles were 
to form the basis of a party the electorate would be split 
up into a great number of petty groups, no one of which 
would be of a size sufficient to gain control of the gov- 
ernment. Minor differences of opinion, therefore, are 
sunk, and parties organized only on the basis of some 
issue great enough to interest the whole electorate. 

In this is the danger of party. The candidates who 
are elected on the strength of their position upon a single 
great issue are required to decide many quite different 
problems. Thus a congressman elected upon a sound 
money platform may be called upon to vote upon the 
tariff bill. It might well be that many of his constituents 
who approved his views on the money question would 
heartily disapprove his views on the tariff. Thus a 
party frequently effects ends for which the people have 
not commissioned it, and, to that extent, democracy 
breaks down. The consciousness of this weakness in the 
representative system has given birth to the movement 
for the initiative and referendum. This movement seeks 
to make every question of any importance separable 
from every other and to permit it to be presented to the 
people for their immediate determination, uncompli- 
cated by party or other considerations. 1 



(1) Until lately it might have been said that mention of the 
initiative and referendum had no place in a description of Pennsyl- 
vania, but not now, for the initiative and referendum are now parts 
of the system of government of cities of the third class. See chapter 
XVTI. 



PARTIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 195 

The inherent difficulty in the party system is thus 
seen to be the fact that it influences government in so 
many ways that are irrelevant to the issue upon which 
the successful party gains its power. This difficulty 
would not be so serious if voters would change their party 
as each new issue arose, but mankind is much addicted 
to loyalties, and is manacled by habits. When once a 
voter's affections have gone out to a party he is apt 
to stick by it through thick and thin. This fact is known 
and counted on by party leaders and is used for their 
own ends. Habit performs much the same service as 
loyalty, and men who cast their first vote to stay the 
march of slavery or save the union, are sometimes led 
by habit to vote into local power men whom, as individ- 
uals, they could not respect. 

The relationship of State and nation offers a clear il- 
lustration of the frequent irrelevancy of party organiza- 
tion. The problems of our State government have little 
in common with those of the nation, and yet the voters 
aggregate themselves into parties on the basis of na- 
tional issues, and then permit the political leaders to 
use the parties thus created to rule the affairs of the 
State. 

The evils arising from the irrelevancy of the party 
system are clearly recognized, and three different lines 
of improvement have been suggested. Most radical is 
the initiative and referendum, of which mention has been 
made. The second line of improvement, an extremely 
practical one, recognizes things as they are and sees 
clearly that if all questions are to be decided by party 
action, whether relevant or irrelevant to its principles, 
it should at least be made possible for the people to con- 
trol their own party machinery. This line of reason- 
ing produces the uniform primary. The third effort to- 
ward improvement is somewhat more idealistic. While 
it recognizes that party action is necessary, it seeks to 



196 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

keep party action relevant by organizing a greater num- 
ber of parties as the issues multiply, or to suppress par- 
ties entirely where no party issue is possible. This 
method of thinking produces parties limited to the State 
(e. g., Keystone Party, Lincoln Party) or to a single 
city (e. g., City Party, Philadelphia Party, William Penn 
Party, Franklin Party), and non-partisan ballot laws, 
such as that now in force in the election of judges. 

The party system had not received recognition at the 
time of the adoption of the United States Constitution, 
and it was recognized by law very gradually. In Penn- 
sylvania, nothing more was attempted at first than to 
facilitate the act of party voting and to permit of party 
nominations and party groupings upon the ballot, no 
effort being made to regulate by law the internal con- 
struction of a party, or the integrity of its acts. This 
produced a bosses' paradise. Gradually the law has 
more and more enveloped and fixed the party. However, 
there is difficulty here. As we defined party, it is a 
voluntary association. As such it is very hard to reach 
by law. The State can, of course, regulate as much as 
it pleases any body of men whom it recognizes as a 
party, but it cannot prevent men from banding them- 
selves together in a virtual but unavowed manner for 
the purpose of influencing the formal action of the regu- 
lated party. Thus they achieve their end and escape 
regulation. 

The two theories, that of party regulation by statute 
and that of minimizing party by means of non-partisan 
elections, were both effective in moulding the election 
legislation of the session of 1913. Strange bed fellows 
these, — the party enrollment act and the non-partisan 
ballot act of that year. They were the last steps yet 
taken in the direction of the two theories mentioned. In- 
deed, the non-partisan ballot might be spoken of as the 
first step, as well as the last step, for it is practically 



PABTIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 197 

the only step in this direction. The ballot laws have 
always made non-partisan voting possible, but have 
never before encouraged it. 

The party enrollment act completed the work begun 
by the uniform primary act. As soon as party becomes 
an effective engine in government, it is important to 
know how party policy can be controlled. This aspect 
of the case was for a long time unrecognized except by 
the astute political leaders. By making their influence 
felt in the nomination of candidates and the construc- 
tion of platforms, they could wield a decisive influence in 
governmental affairs without seeming to take any part 
in government at all. For a long time the average voter, 
who would have joined a revolution had his vote been 
taken away from him, seemed to be indifferent to the 
fact that there was no protection at all of his right to 
participate in party management, although outside of 
party management there was really no effective method 
of influencing government. Finally, however, the voters 
came to a realization that they must protect their rights 
at the springs of party action, and so uniform, or in 
other words, law-controlled, primaries, were instituted. 
One final step was necessary to complete the legal recog- 
nition of parties. Just as personal registration is neces- 
sary to secure an accurate voting list for the election and 
an authoritative register of those who have a right to 
vote, so an authoritative list must be made of those 
who have a right to participate in the primaries of the 
several parties. To secure such a list the party enroll- 
ment law was enacted. On the other hand the non-parti- 
san ballot act casts aside the party theory entirely and 
proceeds upon the assumption that the voter should not 
be hampered by party considerations in choosing be- 
tween the various individuals in nomination. 

A more detailed consideration will be given to these 
laws in an appropriate place, but here it is pertinent to 



198 STATE GOVERNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

inquire as to the probable outcome of the working of 
these two seemingly opposed theories, one seeking to en- 
courage, the other to destroy the party system. 

The answer is that the principles are not mutually 
destructive, but that each limits the excess of the other, 
and that they will probably come to equilibrium when the 
legitimate bounds of party action are generally agreed 
upon. Wherever questions arise of such a nature that 
they must be settled ultimately by public opinion, and 
when these questions are fundamental and far reaching, 
parties will arise to enforce the will of large groups of 
like-thinking people. It would be entirely futile, as well 
as unwise, to attempt to hinder this process, but it should 
always be borne in mind that no party ought to be kept 
in power by means irrelevant to its reason for existence. 
Patronage, unfair ballot laws, inertia of public opinion, 
all these support dying parties, but do so to the detri- 
ment of the public interest. It is a matter deeply to be 
regretted that the vital questions that arise in the gov- 
ernment of our State do not seem to be of wide enough 
interest to lead to the formation of purely State parties, 
and thereby the State is the loser. In the cities, on the 
other hand, the issues are clear enough to produce purely 
local parties, though these parties are shamefully handi- 
capped by the inability of the voters to shake themselves 
free from their habit of following blindly their national 
parties. In the State largely, in the city almost com- 
pletely, and in the judiciary entirely, the voter is inter- 
ested rather in the integrity and capacity of the public 
officer than in his party standing. On the other hand, 
in national affairs the voter is primarily interested in 
certain great policies, and he is apt to view the public 
officer as an automaton destined to carry out those poli- 
cies according to the behests of the successful party. 

These being the underlying facts, it is probable that 
the fullest lesral recognition will always be given to 



PAETIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 199 

national parties and that they will be so regulated as 
to belong to their members rather than to their leader. 
To this end presidential primaries will probably become 
universal. But parties having no real reason for exis- 
tence will be discouraged. In electing representative 
bodies, proportional representation 2 will be introduced, 
and the voters will vote for the man rather than the 
party. All local officers will be elected on a non-partisan 
ballot, as judges are under the 1913 legislation. 

The State officers represent the meeting line of the 
two tendencies. If enough interest can be aroused in 
State questions to justify State parties, such parties will 
probably come to be realities, but if the present condi- 
tion of general indifference toward State matters con- 
tinues, it is probable that, in time, State officers also will 
be elected on a non-partisan ballot. 3 

It is clear by this time that the practical citizen must 
act with some party. He will, of course, exercise his best 
individual discretion in the non-partisan voting now 



(2) Proportional representation is a system by means of which 
the faults of representative government due to our method of em- 
ploying geographical districts as election units are corrected. In- 
stead, the representatives are elected by a constituency gathered from 
any part of the city or state, as the case may be, and as everybody 
places himself in one of these constituencies, no one remains unre- 
presented. Under the present system there is always a large unre- 
presented minority, frequently amounting to but little less than half 
the voters. When the inequalities of the geographical system are 
consciously employed, the process is known as gerrymandering. The 
subject of proportional representation seems obscure until sufficient 
attention has been given it really to understand it, but when once 
this is done, the wonder is that it was not long ago adopted. Ashtabula, 
Ohio, has the honor of being the first community in the United States 
to adopt proportional representation, having done so on August 10, 
1915. The American Proportional Representation League stands 
ready to furnish information to anyone interested in this subject. 
Address, C. G. Hoag, General Secretary, 802 Franklin Bank Bldg., 
Philadelphia. 

(3) This issue arose in the election of 1915 in California, and 
the voters rejected non-partisan elections for state offices. 



200 STATE GOVERNMENT IX PEXXSYLVAXIA. 

permitted, and he may desire either that the party sys- 
tem or the non-party system be extended, but as 
things stand either desire can be achieved only 
by the success of some party whose principles 
embody it. Consequently it becomes of interest 
to know what legally constitutes a party and how a voter 
may become a member of one. 

Any group of citizens acting together to influence 
governmental action constitutes a real party, but such a 
party is not necessarily recognized by law. It must first 
prove its right to existence. Each of the parties entails 
a certain burden of expense on the public in the way 
of printing ballots and providing various other election 
material and it is proper that no party should be recog- 
nized by the State unless it is large enough to become 
a factor in an election. 

The State-wide uniform primary act 4 completely de- 
fines what a party is. This act makes a very just dis- 
tinction between a party in the State and a party in a 
county. As long as the law has not yet advanced far 
enough to provide non-partisan elections for all local 
officials, the only way of escape from the absurd division 
along national lines in local affairs is the creation of 
strictly local parties. It is evident that it would not be 
fair to such purely local parties to require them to 
qualify for party existence in the same way that could 
reasonably be required of a party operating throughout 
the whole State. 

A party within the State is defined by the primary 
law (sec. 2) as follows: 

"Any party or body of electors, one of whose 
candidates at the general election next preceding the 
primary (i. e.. the primary at which the party seeks 
a place on the ballot) polled in each of at least ten 
counties of the State not less than two per centum 
4] Act July 12, 1913. P. L. 719. 



PAETIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 201 

of the largest entire vote cast in each of said coun- 
ties for any elected candidate, and polled a total 
vote in the State equal to at least two per centum 
of the largest entire vote cast in the State for any 
elected candidate, is hereby declared to be a political 
party within the State.' ' 

This definition requires that the party shall have 
actual existence in at least ten of the sixty-seven coun- 
ties of the State and so be more than a merely local af- 
fair, ft should be noted that the existence of a State 
party depends on the vote at a general, or State-wide 
election. It is also important to note that the two per 
centum necessary is based upon the largest entire vote 
of any elected candidate. This means that in ascertain- 
ing the base upon which to calculate the two per centum 
it is necessary to add together the vote which the highest 
candidate received from all sources. This is sometimes 
apt to work in a peculiar way. If a candidate should be 
endorsed by all of the principal parties his entire vote 
would practically be the entire vote polled and 
two per centum of this total would be about 
equal to four per centum of a normal majority party vote. 
However, even the requirement of four per centum could 
hardly be thought a hardship by any party with any real 
vitality. 

A party within a county is defined as follows : 

"Any party or body of electors, one of whose 
candidates at either the general or municipal elec- 
tion preceding the primary polled at least five per 
centum of the largest entire vote cast for any elected 
candidate in any county, is hereby declared to be 
a political party within said county. ■ ' 

Note that a local party requires five per cent, instead 
of two per cent, of the largest entire vote. 

A voter becomes a member of a party by voting for 



202 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

a majority of the candidates of that party. 5 In calcu- 
lating this majority, the group of presidential electors 
is counted as but two candidates, since the whole group 
simply represents the candidates for president and vice- 
president. 

Membership in a party is gained by voting its ticket, 
but the voter reads his title clear in the party enroll- 
ment. Enrollment provisions are found in the personal 
registration act for cities of the first and second class 
and in the State-wide primary act, but the basic statute 
is the enrollment act. 6 By its provisions, one of the 
questions asked the voter when registering is, "What 
party are you a member of?" He is not compelled to 
answer this question, but unless he does so he will not 
be able to vote at the next party primary. He will be 
able, hoAvever, to participate in the nomination of candi- 
dates to be voted for at the non-partisan election. 

In the State outside the cities, where personal regis- 
tration is not provided for, it is the duty of the tax 
assessors, when making their rounds for the purpose of 
making up the voting list, to enquire of the voter his 
party membership, and enroll him accordingly. In case 
the voter is not at home when the assessor calls, he 
leaves an enrollment blank which the voter may fill out 
and forward to the assessor. As this system lacks most 
of the safeguards that are thrown around the personal 
registration system, and as voters are apt to be apathetic 
about sending in their enrollment certificates, it is gener- 
ally felt that the assessors have a rather undue influence 
in determining a voter's party standing. 

The enrollment of voters according to their party 
membership provides an accurate list of voters qualified 
to take part in the management of their parties. In the 
old days of the soap box primary there was absolutely 

(5) Act July 25, 1913, P. L. 1043. 

(6) Act July 25, 1913, P. L. 1043. 



PARTIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



203 



no protection for the honest party member. The ordi- 
nary method of conducting a primary was to have the 
voter appear before the window of a house and pass his 
ballot through to party officers inside who deposited it 
in a box improvised from the corner grocery. Hence the 
name. What happened to the ballot after it passed 
through the window was known only to the men "on the 
inside.' ' A case has been reported where one of the 
tellers swallowed many of the opposition ballots. 7 As 
there were no official ballots, and no list of voters, it is 
evident that there was no check on surreptitiously de- 
stroyed ballots. Even supposing that the ballots cast 
were preserved and honestly counted, still there was no 
guaranty that those casting them were really party mem- 
bers. If the party leader was experiencing difficulties 
from rebellion in his ranks, he could call on the leader of 
the opposite party for a battalion of his trusties. The 
insurgents could protest, of course, but could do little 
else. Primaries were strictly party affairs and their 
disputes had to be settled by party rules and before 
party tribunals. Insurgents were not apt to get much 
comfort out of a party tribunal. 

Until the enrollment act was passed, party raiding 
was a popular pastime. It is true that under the first 
primary act of 1906, voting in each party primary was 
restricted to those who claimed membership in the party, 
but, under the law, a voter could have any ballot he re- 
quested, unless challenged, and the practical politician 
hates to challenge, it makes too many enemies. This re- 
luctance to challenge is especially noted in some of the 
divisions where physical violence is counted a legitimate 
political instrument. 

That the practice of party raiding is not an imagin- 
ary proceeding, is proved by the experience of the oppo- 

(7) It is needless to state that this occurred before the days of 
the blanket ballot. 



204 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

sition to the Republican Organization in Philadelphia be- 
tween 1906 and 1912. Beginning as the City Party, they 
became successively the Philadelphia Party, the William 
Penn Party, and the Keystone Party. No party would 
moult its name each Spring but for good reasons. The 
reason was imperative. At the first opportunity the 
Organization, whose trained cohorts always turn out in 
force at primary elections, directed its henchmen to mas- 
querade as of the opposition in sufficient force to swamp 
the less disciplined independents and select organiza- 
tion followers as candidates upon the independent tick- 
ets. The independents had no way then of voting for 
their own candidates but that of creating a brand new 
party. They might well say that they were pilgrims, 
that theirs was no continuing city. One of the greatest 
demonstrations of independent thought and action ever 
seen in this none too independent State, was the way in 
which the body of independent voters abandoned party 
after party to the pirates and transferred themselves to 
the new launched ship, seemingly without loss of strength 
in the process. 

The launching of a new party is an operation in 
which every practical citizen is likely to be called upon 
to assist, hence it should be described. The first thing 
the new party group must do is to name themselves and 
arrange to have the name recorded in such a way that 
no other group can dispossess them of it. 

The law 8 provides that any live members of a party 
may file an affidavit with the prothonotary of the county 
where the nomination papers are to be filed that their 
party has adopted a certain appellation. Thereafter this 
party will have exclusive right to the use of this name. 
Sometimes when it is evident that a new party is to 
be launched, an amusing scramble takes place to see 
who can first pre-empt a popular title. The classical in- 
(8) Act July 9, 1897, See. 1, P. L. 223. 



PARTIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



205 



stance of this was the birth of the Washington Party. 
In the summer of 1912 the National Progressive Party 
came into being. It was at once evident that a progress- 
ive party wonld be launched in Pennsylvania, and its 
great problem was how to get itself named by its friends. 
Its astute enemies, taking time by the forelock, had al- 
ready pre-empted the name Progressive as well as al- 
most every combination of words that might seem at- 
tractive to progressive voters. 

The task of getting a State-wide party named 
is almost staggering. As far as nominating can- 
didates for State offices is concerned, there is no 
special difficulty. It is only necessary for five 
electors to file their affidavit in the office of the pro- 
thonotary of Dauphin County. But where a new party 
is desirous of carrying on a campaign in the various 
counties also it is necessary to find five electors in each 
case to make the pre-emption for local purposes. It is 
necessary to do this simultaneously all over the State, 
else, as soon as the name to be used were disclosed, the 
enemy would be sure to capture it in some, if not many, 
counties. The same principle applies even down to 
wards and election divisions. 

In the case of the progressive voters in 1912, the 
name Progressive being in the hands of the enemy, it 
was deemed wise to pre-empt simultaneously in every 
county of the State three several names. So success- 
fully was this done, so vigorously yet so secretly was the 
work carried forward that all three were pre-empted in 
each county inside of twenty-four hours. The name 
Washington was selected as the most available of the 
three. The name "Bull Moose" was also used by the 
same interests in order to allow of the straight ticket 
voting of certain local variations, and these two parties, 
born in a night, with their combined votes swept the 
State, leaving the Republican Party, which had hitherto 



206 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

dominated the State so completely, to trail along after 
the Democrats. 

After the new party is named, it is necessary to prove 
that it has substance before it can be allowed a place on 
the official ballot. This is done by securing sufficient 
names to the petition placing the candidates of the new 
party in nomination. 9 

It is evident that the five electors who have pre- 
empted a party name in any district, control the situa- 
tion as far as nominations by the party whose name they 
have secured is concerned, for any petition which they 
refuse to endorse cannot avail to nominate under the 
name which they own. Occasionally this gives undue 
power to the five instruments of the party, but the diffi- 
culty soon rights itself, since, if the party receives the 
requisite vote at the election it achieves official recogni- 
tion as a party, and its future nominations must be made 
at the uniform primaries. 



(9) In the case of state candidates, this number is one-half of one 
per cent, of the largest vote for any officer elected in the State at 
the last preceding election at which a state officer was voted for, and 
in the case of local candidates, two per cent, of the highest vote for 
any officer elected at the last election in the locality. cf. Act July 
9, 1897, Sec. 1, P. L. 223. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



REGISTRATION. 



NOT every person is an elector. Consequently it is 
necessary that some means be provided of ascer- 
taining who is entitled to vote, and of making this 
information available to the officers who are charged 
with the conduct of the election. But, until recently, 
this work was very inadequately performed. The lists 
were prepared by the assessors, and their accuracy de- 
pended entirely upon the activity and energy, to say 
nothing of the honesty of these officials. There is good 
reason to believe that these lists were sometimes delib- 
erately padded with names of non-eligible or even non- 
existent citizens, and it is an unquestioned fact that the 
lists always contained a considerable proportion of dead 
wood in the shape of citizens who had died or removed 
from the voting division. The names upon the as- 
sessors' lists' which did not represent qualified voters, 
quite irrespective of whether such names found their 
place upon the list through fraud, neglect, or change of 
residence, could be manufactured into majorities by the 
use of repeaters. These ballot criminals were frequently 
residents of other States who came here to reap the har- 
vest of election day. They would be supplied with the 
names of the voters whom they were to impersonate and 
would go from division to division casting their ballot in 
the interests of those who employed them. When there 
were not enough names improperly upon the assessors' 
lists the ballot criminals had another method which 
served their purpose equally well. This was to have some 
unauthorized voter impersonate some qualified citizen 
who had not yet voted. When the actual citizen did come, 

207 



208 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

he was told that the record showed that he had voted 
already, and if he made a fuss he was threatened with 
arrest for repeating! But times have changed. Not 
long ago some election officers got into serious trouble 
for refusing to allow men to vote whose names had been 
fraudulently voted upon earlier in the day. 1 

It is interesting to note that such ballot fraud as still 
persists in Pennsylvania, is accomplished by crimes of 
stealth and not by police or military intimidation. 2 Just 
as the business world is never entirely free from fraud 
and banks have always to be on the lookout against the 
counterfeiter, so the ballot crook who works by stealthy 
means is difficult of detection. It is always possible, 
however, so to improve the machinery of election as to 
make crime increasingly difficult, just as the machinery 
of business is being constantly improved for the same 
purpose. Obviously the first step in securing an honest 
election is to provide a definite means for creating an 
absolutely correct register of the names of the citizens 
who are qualified to vote, and the only way in which 
this can be done is to require each citizen to present him- 
self at a definite time before a body capable of ascertain- 
ing his right to vote. There he establishes his identity 
and his qualifications, and places on record his signature 
for the purpose of providing means for his subsequent 
identification when he comes to vote. 

This process is known as personal registration. To 
secure a law providing for personal registration was 
the goal for many years of the haters of ballot crime. 
It was not easy to secure the passage of such a law. As 
is so often the case with reforms, the first step necessary 
was an amendment to the Constitution. The makers of 
the Pennsylvania Constitution seem to have been much 
more anxious to prevent the exclusion of voters than 
the intrusion of repeaters. Accordingly, they provided 

(1) Commonwealth vs. Weiserth, 47 Pa. Super. Ct. 592. 

(2) Written before the Fifth Ward, Philadelphia, episode, (Sep- 
tember 17, 1917.) 



KEGISTKATION. 209 

that * ' no elector shall be deprived of the privilege of vot- 
ing by reason of his name not being registered/ ' They 
also provided that "all laws for the registration of elec- 
tors shall be uniform throughout the State. ' ' 3 The first 
of these provisions prevented the passage of any regis- 
tration act and the second prevented any discrimination 
between the cities, where the registration act was needed, 
and the rural districts where it was not. 

Patient men worked upon this problem for years, and 
finally on November 5, 1901, the people adopted the re- 
quired amendment. Not yet, however, was victory 
achieved. The people had been persuaded that personal 
registration was a desirable reform, but in this respect 
at least they were not represented by their Legislature. 
Finally came the special session of 1906, the penitential 
session, when the politicians were bowing before the 
storm of the people's wrath and anxious to placate it 
by passing whatever was known by the name of reform. 
Then was the fullness of time for personal registration, 
and the two acts upon the subject were passed, one for 
cities of the first and second class 4 and one for cities 
of the third class. 5 Some amendments to the personal 
registration act were made in 1907 6 and 1911. 7 All the 
acts concerning personal registration for cities of the 
first and second classes were repealed in 1913, and a 
completely new act passed. 8 So it will be necessary to 
study only this act to have the whole law upon the sub- 
ject as far as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton are 
concerned. The rest of the chapter will be devoted to 



(3) Art. VIII, Sec. 7. 

(4) Act February 17, 1906, P. L. 49. 

(5) Act March 5, 1906, P. L. 63. 

(6) Act June 3, 1907 ; P. L. 395. Act May 25, 1907, P. L. 251. 

(7) Act June 16, 1911, P. L. 993. Act June 16, 1911, P. L. 1014. 

(8) Act July 24, 1913, P. L. 977. 

4 



210 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

a description of the personal registration act affecting 
these larger cities. The system in force in third class 
cities is of exactly the same nature and differs only in 
having more simple machinery and less expense of oper- 
ation. The voters in the State outside- of the cities are 
listed by the assessors, as was done prior to the intro- 
duction of the personal registration system. 

Appearing before the registering officials and be- 
coming registered is now a sine qua non of voting in the 
cities. The object of this requirement of the law is 
threefold: first, to determine an intending voter's quali- 
fication at a time prior to election day, so that any con- 
troverted question can be determined by the court and 
the polling place relieved of the constant disputes over 
qualifications which were a feature of voting under the 
prior system; second, to provide a correct list of quali- 
fied voters for the guidance of the election officers ; and, 
third, to furnish means by which the election officers and 
watchers can determine whether the applicant for a bal- 
lot is in truth the person he represents himself to be. 

The chief officers of the machinery created to put 
the personal registration act into effect are the 
registration commissioners, of whom there are 
four, composing the board of registration com- 
missioners. Not more than two of the commis- 
sioners may be members of the same party. This pro- 
vision was for the purpose of removing as far as possi- 
ble the temptation to partisan action, for which there 
can be no excuse in the work of preparing a list of voters. 
As there is no known way of insuring that the officers 
in charge of registration shall be non-partisan, the idea 
was adopted of making the board bipartisan or multipar- 
tisan. Perhaps this idea was adopted from the practice 
in Laputa as described by Gulliver, where, in order to 
limit the rancors of party, the heads of the leaders were 
sawn in two, and each half readjusted to the half of an 



KEGISTEATION. 211 

opponent, and the married brains left to fight it out be- 
tween themselves. 

In view of the fact that the board is composed of an 
even nnmber of commissioners, the danger of deadlock 
would seem to be enormous, but whatever danger there 
is of this is more than overcome by the advantage de- 
rived from the fact that partisan action is still further 
guarded against, since no more than two members may 
be of the same party and since a majority of the board is 
composed of three, at least one minority member must 
accede to everything done. Nevertheless, in the experi- 
ence of nearly a decade, there has been little trouble 
resulting from deadlocking of the board. Probably this 
is due to the fact that the commissioners recognize at the 
start that any possibility of action demands that they 
shall show a spirit of accommodation, and, since their 
duties require principally decision upon a number of con- 
crete cases, rather than the laying down of broad and 
'fundamental principles, there is ample room for compro- 
mise without creating dangerous precedents. 

The commissioners not later than August 15th of each 
year appoint four registrars for each election district. 
These are the officers that do the actual registering of 
the voters. They must be duly qualified electors of the 
district in which they are to serve and must have been 
residents of the city for two years and of the ward one 
year immediately preceding their appointment. They 
must be sober and judicious, of good moral character, 
able to read intelligently and to write legibly. The regis- 
trars, like the commissioners, are distributed among the 
parties, and means are carefully provided in the law 
for adjusting the party relationship. The details of this 
adjustment are perhaps a little dry for the general 
reader, but are of the utmost importance to anyone in- 
terested in actual politics, because these officers are the 
only appointive officers with a frankly partisan qualifi- 



212 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

cation, paid for out of public funds. The act intends 
that the registrars shall in effect be appointed by the 
parties to which they belong, the registration commis- 
sioners simply exercising a supervising power. The pro- 
cedure is as follows : Each party suggests to the com- 
missioner the names of two candidates for registrars. 
This suggestion is made by petition signed by five elec- 
tors of the district, and authenticated as coming from 
the party by the signatures of the president and one sec- 
retary of the ward executive committee, if there be such 
a committee, or, if none exists, by the officers of the 
city committee. The petition sets forth the names, ad- 
dresses, occupations and political affiliations of the per- 
sons suggested, and each candidate must swear to the 
truth of the facts set forth in the petition. If the candi- 
date is fit, the filing of his petition by a party who has 
a right to the places sought is all that is necessary to se- 
cure his appointment, for the commissioners have not 
power to appoint any others unless those nominated by 
the party are not qualified. However, the commission- 
er's power of supervision is not merely nominal, for it 
is mandatory that each applicant on his original appoint- 
ment, though not on reappointment, appear before the 
commissioners and be examined. Opportunity is given 
to the citizens living in the same district to protest the 
qualifications of the applicant. Even if the nominees of 
the parties are rejected, the parties are directed to sug- 
gest others, so that there can be but few cases where the 
registrars are not the direct representatives of the par- 
ties to which they belong. In order to prevent the 
situation arising where the commissioners would re- 
ject every suggestion made by a party, the law pro- 
vides that if two commissioners have concurred in ap- 
proving four persons successively to fill one position, and 
the other two commissioners have concurred in object- 
ing to such persons, the commissioners first referred to 



KEGISTKATION. 213 

may approve four other names, and from these eight, 
all having been suggested by petition, the other two com- 
missioners must select the registrars. To this extent 
the veto of the minority is modified, but in all other cases 
the board must act by a majority of its members. 

The registrars receive ten dollars a day, and as the 
day consists of a session from 7 to 10 A. M. and another 
from 4 to 10 P. M., the heart of the day remains to them 
to attend to their private business. Thus, the ten dol- 
lars is rather attractive and capable men can be secured. 
As the registrars are appointed on political recommen- 
dation and as their duties acquaint them with all the 
voters in their district, and as they are well enough paid 
to make them desire the office, they are about the best 
material for building a party organization that exists. 

To ascertain what parties are entitled to registrars 
in any election district, it is necessary to examine the 
vote cast in that district at the last general election, that 
is to say at the last election at which State or national 
officers were voted for. As the last election may have 
been a municipal election, it may be necessary to go back 
nearly two years. The appointment of two of the regis- 
trars is the property of the party polling the highest vote 
within the district 1 , and at least one of the registrars must 
be a member of the party polling the next highest vote. 
In practice where there are two great parties, two of the 
registrars will belong to each. When there are three im- 
portant parties, two registrars belong to the majority 
party in the division, one to the next strongest and one 
to the third strongest. A fact never to be forgotten by 
the voter is that he must kegistek eveey yeak. Like vac- 
cination registration has a limited efficacy. In order to 
vote at an election in the fall it is necessary to have 
registered that very fall. It is not sufficient to have 
registered the previous spring, for the lists expire every 
summer, and the voter must renew his standing every 



214 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

fall in order to be able to vote. Notwithstanding the 
number of years which have elapsed since the inaugu- 
ration of the registration system, there is still consider- 
able uncertainty on this point in the minds of many 
citizens. This is probably due to the fact that under the 
prior system a voter who was once upon the assessor's 
list was generally carried there indefinitely, so that after 
having once seen that he was assessed the voter had 
nothing further to do with preparing himself to vote. 
The practical citizen will find it a considerable part of 
his duties to eradicate this error from the minds of the 
citizenship at large and drag them out to register when 
they think they are already qualified. The intent of 
the registration act is to make it as easy as possible for 
everybody to register. To this end each fall three days 
are provided on which the registrars sit. Each is fixed 
on a different day of the week. In case any citizen has 
been ill or absent upon all of the three days, 8 he may 
present himself before the registration commissioner, 
who will enter his name on the list. The hours of regis- 
tration are made to stretch over a great part of the day 
so as to accommodate everybody no matter what the 
hours of their occupation may be. It has been found by 
experience that almost "no election business of any kind 
is ever carried on in the middle of the day. Consequently 
the hours have been fixed from 7 to 10 A. M. and from 
4 to 10 P. M., thus the registrars are not compelled to be 
on duty for more than nine hours, yet the registration 
books are open early in the morning and late at night. As 
the particular days of the week were sought to be fixed 
rather than the days of the month, the calendar dates 
of the registration days are not given in the act. The 
days are as follows : 9 In even numbered years (that is, 

(8) And in a few other eases, cf. Act June 18, 1915, P. L. 1027. 

(9) Act May 28, 1915, P. L. 576. 



BEGISTKATIOX. 



215 



year of general election) ninth Thursday, seventh Tues- 
day and fifth Saturday before election day. These three 
days together are known as the fall registration, and on 
the fifth Wednesday preceding the spring primary there 
is another registration day known as the spring regis- 
tration. In odd numbered years (years of municipal 
election) ninth Thursday, eighth Tuesday and eighth 
Saturday before election day. It will be noted that the 
registration clays occur at a different period in odd num- 
bered and in even numbered years, the days being earlier 
in even numbered years and an extra registration day oc- 
curring in the spring. In odd numbered years there is 
no spring registration day. The reason for the extra 
registration day in the spring in even numbered years 
is the fact that in those years a primary is held in the 
spring, and this registration day is for the purpose of 
giving an opportunity to register to voters who failed to 
do so in the previous fall, or for voters who change their 
party allegiance to have that fact recorded. The differ- 
ence in other respects between the odd and even num- 
bered years for registration days is caused by the ne- 
cessity of avoiding conflict with the fall primary. 

The registrars sit in the same room in which the elec- 
tions are held. The citizen intending to register on en- 
tering the room faces quite a little group. Seated at 
tables are the four registrars with their two wide books 
called registers. The books are practically identical 
and will afterwards appear at the election to make their 
contents available when needed. Standing about the 
room are the watchers. These are duly accredited rep- 
resentatives of the political parties and have a right to 
be present in order to see that everything is done in a 
legal manner. The citizen registering is first sworn to 
tell the truth in answering the questions to be put to him, 
and then the catechising begins. When the system was 
new some hasty citizens were inclined to charge the reg- 



216 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

istrars with impertinence, and heated scenes were not 
uncommon. When asked whether he is lodger, lessee or 
owner, many a man has i ' owner ' ' at the tip of his tongue 
when he remembers that the house is in his wife's name. 
He cannot say lessee, for that is not the case, and finally 
he is driven to the public and official acknowledgment 
that he is merely a lodger in his wife's house. As long 
as voting is confined to men the questions concerning per- 
sonal description do not cause much difficulty. Among 
them are a question as to color, one as to weight and one 
as to age. What will happen when women are compelled 
to write themselves down as fair, fat and forty, must 
be left to conjecture. No blame, however, can attach to 
the registrars, as they ask only the questions necessary 
to elicit the information required by the statute. 

The most important thing that the registrars want 
to know about any person who applies to be registered, 
is whether he is a qualified elector, and it is now neces- 
sary for us to consider the various qualifications as set 
out in the Constitution. 10 In the first place the applicant 
must be a male citizen of Pennsylvania twenty-one 
years of age. Strangely enough there is nothing in the 
Constitution to tell us what a citizen of Pennsylvania is. 
Practically every club, association or corporation has 
something in its charter or by-laws to designate who may 
be members, but the Constitution of the Sovereign State 
of Pennsylvania is silent on the subject. Probably the 
reason is that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United 
States Constitution covers the ground so completely that 
there is no practical reason for a State Constitution to 



(10) Const., Art. VIII, Sec. 1. 

In a book describing Pennsylvania as it is, Woman Suffrage 
must still remain in a foot note. But not for long. The enormous 
vote given in the election of 1915 for the suffage amendment to the 
constitution indicates that the progress of a few years will suffice 
to wipe out the illogical discrimination against women in the ex- 
ercise of the franchise. 



KEGISTBATION. 217 

treat of the question at all. The opening words of that 
great amendment, the American Magna Charta of op- 
pressed people, are these : " All persons born or natural- 
ized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction 
thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State 
wherein they reside." Since no State has any practical 
interest in admitting to citizenship people who have 
neither been born nor naturalized in the United States, 
and since all who are so born or naturalized are 
citizens whether the State wants them or not, there is 
really nothing more for a State to say on the subject. 
For the purposes of the politician at the polls, " citizen 
of the United States residing in Pennsylvania" and 
" citizen of Pennsylvania" are synonymous. 

The age limit is the usual one of full legal age, twenty- 
one years. It is only necessary to point out in this con- 
nection that since the purpose of registration is to find 
out who will be qualified on election day, if a voter is not 
yet twenty-one on registration day but will have reached 
that age on or before election day, he is entitled to be 
registered. 

In addition to being a male citizen of the State 
twenty-one years of age, the elector must have four ad- 
ditional qualifications. He must have been a citizen of 
the United States at least one month, he must have re- 
sided in the State one year (unless he was previously a 
qualified elector or native born citizen of the State, in 
which case a residence of six months is sufficient), he 
must have resided in the election district where he of- 
fers to vote at least two months immediately preceding 
the election, and if twenty-two years of age he must have 
paid a State or county tax, which must have been as- 
sessed at least two months and paid at least one month 
before the election. 

The naturalized citizen is required to produce his 
naturalization papers, the decree of the court admitting 



218 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

him to citizenship. In order to prevent unnecessary 
trouble he is not compelled to do this every time he 
registers in the same division. The class of persons to 
whom such a requirement causes the most trouble is 
composed of those who were under age at the time 
their fathers were naturalized. The citizenship of the 
father carries with it the citizenship of the minor chil- 
dren, but provides them with no papers. This class is 
required to exhibit the naturalization papers of their 
fathers when they can obtain them, but if they are un- 
able to do so, their affidavit to that effect is accepted in- 
stead. 

The requirement that the voter must have lived a 
year in the State is for the purpose of preventing coloni- 
zation of voters before election. If any citizen of the 
United States that happened to be in the State at the 
time could vote, some enterprising politicians might in- 
vite over a large part of the State of New Jersey. The 
qualification of the requirement in favor of those who 
have formerly been voters of the State, reducing their 
time on the waiting list to six months, is sometimes over- 
looked, because the requirement of a year's residence is 
so firmly fixed in the mind. Anyone who has once lived 
in Pennsylvania naturally hopes to get back again, and 
to encourage these the State holds out the prospect of no 
long wait before they can resume the full privileges of 
citizenship. The qualification for voting which is apt 
to cause most annoyance is the requirement that the 
voter must have resided in the election district for two 
months prior to election. This provision was undoubt- 
edly inserted in the Constitution as a means of raising 
some probability that the voter would be known in the 
district and so could be identified. The system of per- 
sonal registration has greatly reduced the necessity for 
this provision, but has not reduced its ability for giving 
trouble. The chief sufferers are the earlv fall movers. 



EEGISTKATION. 219 

They may only move across the street, but if that street 
is the dividing line of an election district, they are dis- 
franchised for the time being. 11 

Just exactly what constitutes residence in an elec- 
tion district is somewhat doubtful. The ordinary hard- 
working plain-living citizen has no difficulty in telling 
where he lives, but the magnate who has "four houses 
but no home, ' ' who considers his vote more needed in one 
county but the assessors more lenient in another, is 
sometimes at a loss to decide. Another class that gives 
rise to this question is that of the politicians who can 
control votes in one place but who do not care to raise 
their children there. The question is more acutely raised 
in their case because their political opponents who do not 
want them to control the votes are apt to try to prove 
that they are not residents. When the matter is pressed 
so far as to get to a jury it generally happens that the 
jury will decide that the man lives where he says he 
does, that is, unless he has tried to maintain two voting 
residences. Of course, some kind of a domicile must be 
established to give color to the claim of residence. A 
rented room, or even a razor has sufficed. 

The final qualification is that the voter, if twenty-two 
years of age and upwards, must have paid a State or 
county tax, which shall have been assessed at least two 
months and paid at least one month before election. Be- 
tween twenty-one and twenty-two years of age the voter 
is not required to have paid any tax, and during that 
time is spoken of as "voting on age." This requirement of 
tax paying is the last vestige of the old property qualifica- 
tion idea still in great vigor in Prussia and to a less extent 
in England. Whatever value the possession of property 
may have in improving the quality of citizenship, this 

(11) It is well to note in passing that the time of residence in 
the district is two months, not sixty days as is often stated. The 
difference is not much, but might be decisive. 



220 STATE GOVEENMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

provision of the Constitution utterly fails to secure it. 
If taxes were assessed only on real estate or on stocks 
and bonds and tangible property, a tax receipt would be 
evidence of the ownership of a certain amount of prop- 
erty, but this is not the case when the voter is qualified 
by a poll tax receipt. 12 This poll tax is fifty cents a head, 
and as it is necessary only to pay it every two years, the 
minimum tax paying necessary to qualify a voter is 
twenty-five cents a year. Even this nominal sum might 
discourage from the polls the absolutely shiftless, were 
it not for the fact that unscrupulous politicians have fre- 
quently purchased receipts in large numbers and so 
qualified thousands of the least valuable class of citi- 
zens. On the other hand, many worthy citizens who are 
not real estate owners but, though they pay large 
amounts of taxes indirectly, neglect to procure poll tax 
receipts, are debarred from voting. Thus the practical 
operation of this provision is to debase rather than ele- 
vate the electorate. It is a sham. "While pretending to 
restrict the electorate to tax payers, in effect it throws 
it open to all citizens, but gives an advantage to those 
who are depraved enough to accept a bribe in the way of 
a free tax receipt. Shams are seldom harmless. How 
much better it would be if our Constitution were to de- 
clare that the citizen voted because he was a man, not 
because he had property. Some day we may attain to 
this. 13 



(12) Here poll is used in the old sense of head, and has no re- 
ference to the voting place, although the use of the poll tax to qualify 
for voting makes it easy to confuse the two meanings. 

(13) Even in eighteenth century England, when voting was 
entirely in the hands of the property holding class, the law in this 
respect was evaded. King George III, who marks the transition from 
King to Boss, was an expert, as is well illustrated by a portion of a 
letter from him to the Secretary of the Treasury in May, 1780, cited 
in Trevelyan 's work l ' George the Third and Charles Fox, vol. I, p. 217. 
Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1912, as follows: — 

"Lord North acquainted me with his wish of supporting Mr. 



KEGISTBATION. 221 

The personal registration system stops short of re- 
quiring Bertillon measurements or thumb-prints or 
photographs, but barring these, pretty nearly everything 
else is required. The first space in the register records 
the surname, and the second the Christian name. 14 It is 
not stated how a heathen would meet this requirement. 
Then the voter is asked his occupation and residence. 
After giving the street and number, he is asked whether 
he is a lodger, lessee or owner. When the man who has 
his house in his wife 's name has finally come to the reali- 
zation that he is only a lodger, it adds to his warmth to 
be compelled to state what room or floor he occupies. 
But the question is number six and must be answered. 
Questions bearing on personal description are not omit- 
ted. The voter 's color, approximate age and approxi- 
mate weight are all duly recorded, and whether he is 
tall, short or medium. To complete the identification, 
the voter signs his name. 15 If there is any doubt of his 
identification on election day, the voter is scrutinized and 
compelled to sign his name again for purposes of com- 
parison. The ordinary repeater is not a skillful forger. 

If any doubting Thomas at the registration feels that 
the voter is not sufficiently described, or if he wants to 
have a little fun at his expense, he can challenge him, 
and the voter then is put through the ordeal of the chal- 
lenge affidavit. The information required in this affi- 
davit is even more intimate than the matters previously 
inquired into, and in addition the registrar must take a 



Pouney for the borough of New Windsor. I shall get my tradesmen 
encouraged to appear for him. I shall order, in consequence of Mr. 
Robinson 's hint, the houses I rent in Windsor to stand in the parish 
rate in different names of my servants, so that will create six votes.'" 

(14) An initial is not sufficient. Solo's registration 20 Dist. 553. 

(15) If the citizen registering alleges inability to write, a record 
of this fact shall be made in the same column, and unless due to some 
apparent physical deformity, he shall be required to make affidavit 
of his inability to write. Personal Registration Act, Sec, 7. 



222 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

good look at him and jot down the following information, 
as well as he is able, " distinguishing marks," "other 
peculiarities," "color of hair." After a registrar has 
duly marked down the distinguishing marks, he would 
need strong powers of observation to find any other 
peculiarities. What he would do if color blind about the 
question of the color of the hair, or how far he is respon- 
sible for an accurate noting of shade, has not been de- 
cided. 

As there are four registrars, and only two books or 
registers to be kept, the other registrars need something 
to do. They are required to work up the registers into 
street lists. These lists have the names arranged in 
the order in which the dwellings of the voters appear 
upon the streets of the district. One of these lists is 
hung upon the door of the polling place for the infor- 
mation of the general public, and the other is returned 
to the County Commissioners, whose duty it is to have 
printed one hundred copies for each district for public 
distribution. These lists are of inestimable value to the 
practical politician. They form the basis of his door 
bell pulling campaign, and enable him to know who lives 
in every house in his bailiwick containing a registered 
voter. It gives him an absolute list of the qualified vot- 
ers of the district and he is saved the time hitherto lost 
in dragging men to the polls only to find that, for some 
reason or other they have no right to vote. Anyone who 
does not possess such a list could hardly be called a prac- 
tical politician. 

Thus the list of voters is made up and we will proceed 
to a description of the occasion upon which it is used. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE PKIMAKY ELECTION. 



IN a former chapter, we have emphasized the fact 
that a party is a voluntary organization of citizens, 
and have also pointed out that the very nature of 
the party principle produces certain evils, the greatest 
of which is the fact that a party organization frequently 
serves as a tool for the effecting of ends differing from 
those for which it was created by the voters. Among the 
methods by which it is hoped that this evil can be re- 
moved is the legal control of the party notwithstanding^ 
the fact that it is a voluntary association. The legisla- 
tion resulting from this effort makes such important 
changes in our electoral system and creates so many 
election details, to know which is essential to the practi- 
cal citizen, that we must devote a chapter to a descrip- 
tion of it. The legislation referred to is known as the 
uniform primary act. The word "uniform" in its title 
indicates the trend of conception which it introduced 
into the law. Primary elections have been known as long 
as parties, but they were regulated entirely by party 
rule, and consequently, every party had its own time and 
place for holding the primary elections and their own 
methods of conducting them. Indeed, it was frequently 
the preference of the various petty leaders of the party 
to have the primaries held at a time and place unknown 
to the better element of the party, so that none but tried 
and true henchmen would have an opportunity to vote. 
The various primary elections were anything but uni- 
form. The purpose underlying the uniform primary act 
was to control the party machinery in such a way that 
every voter would have a full opportunity to take an 

223 



224 STATE GOVEBNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

untrammeled part in the management of the party of his 
choice. The law has done as much in this direction as 
law can do. There is nothing to prevent a voluntary asso- 
ciation totally unregulated by law from springing up for 
the purpose of controlling the actions of the party which 
is law controlled 

This is exactly what takes place and under the vari- 
ous names of "the organization," "bosses," "round-table 
conferences," all sorts of unregulated internal party 
management goes on. The redeeming feature of the pri- 
mary system, however, is that an opportunity is given 
to the citizenship at large at the primary to review and 
control the actions of the unregulated leaderships. An- 
other way of escaping regulation would be to organize 
a party with officers whose names and functions are un- 
known to the law. It would be diverting and refreshing if 
a party, discarding pretence for actuality, were to provide 
in its rules that, instead of a State Committee, the mem- 
bers of which are required by law to be elected at the pri- 
mary, the directing entity should be a "big boss"; that 
there should be two "municipal contractors," and, sub- 
ordinate to these "ward heelers" and "henchmen." 
Such a party would need to have the assistance 
of a recognized party to get its candidate, on the ballot, 
but with that technical exception it would be a full 
fledged party unhampered by legal restrictions. 

The first uniform primary act, 1 like the personal 
registration act, was passed at the penitential session 
of 1906. This act covered all offices, including party 
offices, except those voted for by the people of the State as 
a whole. The session of 1913, which was strongly under 
the influence of progressive ideas, enlarged the primary 
system to include absolutely all officers which the peo- 
ple were called upon to elect. The act of 1913 known as 



(1) Act February 17. 1906, P. L. 36. 



THE PRIMARY ELECTION. 225 

the State-wide Primary Act 2 is the legislation on this 
subject now in force. In addition to extending the sys- 
tem to all the offices in the State, this act also provided 
a means whereby the voter could express his preference 
as to candidates for the office of President of the United 
States, and when having this aspect of the act in mind, 
it is frequently spoken of as providing a "preferential 
primary." The application of the primary system to 
the presidency marks a very distinct forward movement 
between the years 1906 and 1913. Within that time the 
Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States had been passed, which provided that Sena- 
tors should be elected by the people. An act dealing with 
the subject only of the election of Senators in Pennsyl- 
vania, was adopted 3 and also provisions for the nomi- 
nation for United States Senatorial candidates were in- 
cluded in the State-wide primary act just mentioned. 

Under the provisions of the uniform primary act all 
the candidates of a party which is in existence when the 
primary election is held must be elected at the primary. 
The act is careful, however, to provide that the process 
of forming new parties and the making of nominations 
for such new parties by petition shall not be disturbed. 
If this provision had not been made, it would have been 
impossible to organize any new parties, since to be 
recognized at a primary a party must have polled a 
certain percentage of the votes, and a party not 
yet in being naturally could not qualify under this re- 
quirement. An exception to the requirement that all 
candidates shall be nominated at a primary is the case 
of candidates for presidential elector. They are not 
nominated at the primary, but are appointed by the 
party's candidate for president. Shades of our Consti- 

(2) Act July 12, 1913, P. L. 719. Amended, Act May 18, 1917, 
P. L. Act July 6, 1917, P. L. 

(3) Act July 24, 1913, P. L. 995. 

15 



226 STATE GOVEEXMEXT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

tution builders ! What if they had known that the tables 
would be so turned that the presidential electors, that 
college of substantial citizens who are picked for the 
signal honor of naming the nation's chief, should ac- 
tually be chosen by the man whom they were afterwards 
to elect. 4 

Under the old system of unregulated primaries only 
an insignificant section of the party voters ever partici- 
pated at all. Primary fights were sometimes conducted 
by opposing factions of practical politicians, but the 
citizenship at large despaired of ever effecting anything 
by means of the primary. The bad tradition so engend- 
ered has persisted to the present time, and it is extreme- 
ly difficult to secure a really adequate vote at the pri- 
mary. Many citizens still act as if they thought the pri- 
mary elections non-important. The practical politician 
knows them to be all important. He is glad to say, 44 Let 
me nominate the candidates, and I care not who elects 
them." As a matter of fact, the real act of discrimina- 
tion is performed at the primaries. There the voter is 
not faced by questions of party regularity or party suc- 
cess. He has before him merely the names of the candi- 
dates. At the election he will be pressed by larger con- 
siderations than the fitness of the particular candidates. 
Hence he swallows much that is nauseous on a party 
ticket. But at the primary he need only consider in- 
dividual fitness. The horse is not yet stolen and the 
stable door can still be locked. Alas ! So many voters 
wait till it is too late and at election must make choice 
merely between two evils. 

Preceding each regular election is a primary election 
for the selection of the candidates to be balloted for. In 
arranging the time for the primaries, many things have 
to be taken into consideration. The primaries ought not 
to be so near the election that there is insufficient time 



(4) Act July 12. 1913. P. L. 719. See. 18. 



THE PKIMARY ELECTION. 227 

in which to have the votes counted by the return officers, 
to certify the results and to have the ballots printed, to 
say nothing of adequate time in which to conduct a rea- 
sonable campaign. On the other hand, they should not 
be so far distant from the election as to make the cam- 
paign too protracted, with the attendant danger of 
changed circumstances making nominations fail to rep- 
resent the real desires of the parties at the time of the 
election. Then the primary date must be harmonized 
with the registration days, also they must have refer- 
ence to happenings without the State also. The chief 
of these is the national convention. When the law under- 
takes to give the voter a chance to express preference for 
a presidential candidate, it is obvious that it would not 
do to have this preference expressed after the meeting 
of the national convention that made the nomination. 
It is this consideration which dictated the placing of 
the primaries in even numbered years (the years of na- 
tional and State-wide elections) so early as the third 
Tuesday of May. In even numbered years when there 
is no presidential election, it is still well to have the 
whole summer in which to conduct a State-wide cam- 
paign. In the odd numbered years (years of the local 
election) the primary is held on the third Wednesday of 
September. This leaves only a month and a fraction for 
the campaign. The primary could not well be held 
earlier without coming in the heat of the summer, when 
so many people are on vacations. Even as it is, some 
of the registration days are thrown too far back into the 
summer. 

The primary in May is officially known as the spring 
primary, and that in September as the fall primary. At 
the spring primary are nominated not only the candi- 
dates to be elected at the general election, but also the 
State committeemen of the several parties, and, in ap- 
propriate years, delegates and alternates to the national 



228 STATE GOVERNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

convention. Also, in cases where the party rules re- 
quire, national committeemen are elected at the primary. 
While it would be legally possible for a national conven- 
tion to refuse admittance to delegates elected at a pri- 
mary election and seat others elected in some other way, 
the experience of the Republican Convention of 1912 in 
doing this, was not such as to encourage its repetition. 

The purpose of the primary being to assure to the 
voter a fair chance to have his voice heard in the coun- 
sels of the party, the primary elections are governed by 
the same laws which apply to the regular elections. The 
same election officers serve, the same polling places are 
used, and the same election paraphernalia is on hand. 
Since the contest at the primary is between the candi- 
dates and not between parties, the watchers are commis- 
sioned not for their party, but for whatever candidate 
they are especially representing. It is perhaps fortu- 
nate that each candidate does not usually appoint watch- 
ers, else when there were many candidates, the watchers 
would quite crowd out the voters. With these safe- 
guards, the primary election is as accurate a reflection 
of the will of the party voters as can now be devised. 

The most noticeable difference between a primary 
and an election is the fact that instead of one ballot 
carrying all candidates, as appears at a regular election, 
there is a separate ballot for each party. While not so 
intended, this party ballot is in reality the beginning of 
the education of the citizen in the use of the pure Aus- 
tralian ballot, upon which there is no party distinction. 5 
Since all the voters on any one ballot belong to that 
party, straight party voting has no place, and the voter 
must examine each name and mark his ballot according 
to his judgment of the several candidates. 6 Another 



5 See sample primary ballot on another page. 
(6 i By an amendment of the primary act a candidate may have 
his occupation added after his name, if likely to be confused with a 



THE PEIMAKY ELECTION. 229 

way in which the primary election differs from the regu- 
lar election, and in so differing improves upon it, is 
in the matter of assistance to voters. The Constitution 
guarantees secrecy in voting, 7 and does so for the pur- 
pose of having the ballot express as far as may be the 
individual voter's choice, uninfluenced by extraneous 
considerations. This secrecy, naturally, is distasteful 
to those who desire to influence the choice of the voters, 
and to see that they stay influenced until the ballot is 
actually cast. The briber and the intimidator both find 
their work nullified when the ballot is cast in secrecy. 
The assistance of a voter is frequently a mere cloak for 
the destruction of the secrecy of the ballot. In the gen- 
eral election law the privilege of assistance is provided 
for in the following words : 

"If any voter declares to the judge of election that by reason 
of any disability he desires assistance in the preparation of his 
ballot, he shall be permitted by the judge of election to select a 
qualified voter of the election district to aid him in the prepara- 
tion of his ballot; such preparation being made in the voting 
compartment. ' ' 8 

Under this provision a voter has merely to state to 
the judge that he suffers under a disability and assist- 
ance is granted. That the voter really suffers from no 
disability makes no difference, for the voter has been 
held to be the judge of his own disability. 9 This judicial 
interpretation has made any protestor so helpless that 
in practice every request for assistance is granted, and 
not infrequently assistance is thrust on the unwilling. 

similar name. Act June 18, 1915, P. L. 1025. The same provision is 
made for the non-partisan primary and election by Act June 18, 1915, 
P. L. 1046. 

(7) Art. VIII, Sec. 4. 

(8) Act June 10, 1893, Sec. 26, P. L. 432. 

(9) Commonwealth vs. Gallagher, 19 Dist. 149. Beaver Co. 
Elections, 12 Pa., C. C. 227. There is, however, good authority to the 
contrary. Election instructions 2 D. R. 1, Fadden's Case, 3 Lack., 
L. N. 74. This matter is of vital importance and ought to be passed 
on by the Supreme Court. 



230 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

So the briber and the intimiclator have but to see that 
their victim gets assistance from a trusted source to 
work their will. 

Frequent attempts have been made to eradicate this 
evil, but in vain. Only when the Legislature is in such 
a mood as at the penitential session of 1906 can such a 
thing be done. At that session the general election law 
was not under consideration, and improvement could be 
made only in the uniform primary act. The same im- 
provement was retained in the State-wide uniform pri- 
mary act and is now the laAv expressed as follows : "Pro- 
vided, that no elector shall be permitted to receive any 
assistance in marking his ballot unless he shall first make 
an affidavit that he cannot read the names on the ballot 
or that by reason of physical disability he is unable to 
mark his ballot." 10 By this provision two classes alone 
are permitted assistance, the illiterate and the physically 
incapable. The latter class, of course, by reason of their 
misfortune ought to have every consideration, but it is 
hard to see why anyone unable to read should be given 
special privileges in voting. In some rare cases it might 
be that an illiterate man's vote would be valuable, but 
in this time of free schools and even compulsory educa- 
tion the great mass of illiterates must be densely ignor- 
ant and not fit to exercise the franchise. While a direct 
literacy test would be difficult to establish and uncertain 
in its operation, there is no reason why an indirect liter- 
acy test should not be imbedded in the law simply by re- 
moving the right of assistance to those unable to read. 

It is not difficult for a candidate to get his name upon 
the primary ballot. He has but to secure a small num- 
ber of signatures of people who are willing to ask that 
it should be done. As the primary is a party affair at 
which only enrolled party members can vote, it is, of 
course, logical that only party members should sign peti- 



(10) Uniform Primary Act, Sec. 2. 



THE PKIMAKY ELECTION. 231 

tions for placing names on their party ballot at the pri- 
mary. Each voter exhausts his right to sign petitions 
as soon as he has signed one for as many candidates as 
there are persons to be elected to the office ; for instance, 
as but one person is to be elected to the office of Gover- 
nor, a voter can sign but one petition covering this office, 
but if four councilmen are to be elected from a ward, a 
voter may sign the petitions of four candidates. Peti- 
tions are usually circulated by persons who make this 
work a specialty, and as the need for petitions seems to 
grow with modern legislation the profession of " peti- 
tion pusher' ' grows more remunerative. The petition 
must be verified by the affidavit of someone who knows, 
stating that the petitioner signed with full knowledge of 
the contents of the petition and that the facts set out in 
the petition are true. It might seem a little strange 
to require an affidavit that the persons signing the peti- 
tion knew what was in it, but experience demonstrates 
that a skillful canvasser can get people to sign almost 
anything. There is a story current at the Legislature 
that a member once obligingly signed a petition at the 
request of a colleague, and was the butt of considerable 
ridicule when it transpired that the petition was ad- 
dressed to the Governor and prayed for the signer's own 
hanging. 

Another affidavit which must be attached to the peti- 
tion is that of the candidate signifying his willingness to 
run. This is to prevent the ballot from being cumbered 
with fake or unauthorized candidacies. 

The method by which voters in Pennsylvania may 
now express their preference for candidates for Presi- 
dent of the United States is interesting as an example 
of how a thing may be done indirectly when it is not pos- 
sible to provide for it by direct means. The President 
of the United States is elected by a college of presi- 
dential electors, and it is these electors only who are 



232 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

voted for by the people of the several States. By means 
of the party system the candidates for whom the elec- 
toral college will cast their votes are determined by na- 
tional party conventions and anyone who wonld influence 
the choice of a president of the United States must be- 
gin by influencing the composition of the national party 
convention. Up until the enactment of the State-wide 
uniform primary act the individual voter had no control 
over the action of the national party convention whatso- 
ever except in the election of the delegates. There was 
no way of instructing the delegates by the party mem- 
bers and it was frequently the practice for candidates 
to run for the position of delegate to the national con- 
vention without indicating in any way whatsoever what 
candidate he favored. This condition was especially 
valuable to party leaders who were thus enabled to con- 
trol many votes in the convention without the embarrass- 
ment of direct instructions from the people. Under the 
present law in Pennsylvania while candidates for the na- 
tional convention are not compelled to put themselves 
on record as favoring any particular candidate for presi- 
dent, they are given the privilege of making a formal 
statement that, if elected and in attendance as a dele- 
gate to the national convention, they will with all fidelity 
to the best of their judgment and ability in all matters 
coming before the convention support that candidate for 
President of the United States who shall receive the 
highest number of votes cast in the district in which he 
is running. An opportunity is afforded on the ballot 
for the voter to indicate the person whom he desires to 
be the candidate for president, and if the delegates are 
elected who have signed this declaration they are morally 
bound to vote in the national convention for the man re- 
ceiving the highest number of votes in their district. It 
is still too early to know definitely how this provision will 
work in practice. In well bossed communities it is prob- 



THE PKIMAEY ELECTION. 233 

able that the candidate for national convention will not 
make the statement, but will remain unpledged as be- 
fore, but in ordinarily independent districts it is not 
likely that any candidate could be elected who would re- 
fuse to make the statement, and in such districts all the 
candidates would agree to abide by the will of their dis- 
tricts. Should all the other States, or even a large ma- 
jority of them, adopt this principle, the national conven- 
tion will come to resemble the electoral college and will 
cease to have a deliberative function and will be merely a 
registering device. How such a convention would escape 
eternal deadlock, it is difficult to say. Under the pure 
convention system it was quite normal for a large num- 
ber of candidates to be voted for on the first ballot, each 
State having its favorite son, but, on subsequent ballots, 
those who had voted at first for hopeless candidates 
would change to their second choice, and changes would 
continue until someone gets a majority. Under the pref- 
erential primary system if voters instructed at the pri- 
mary may not change (as presidential electors may not 
change), perpetual deadlock is certain, but if they may 
change after the first ballot, their instructions are nuga- 
tory and they might as well not have been instructed at 
all. Probably the question will be solved gradually, 
since the States will not adopt the preferential system all 
at once, although the tendency of the times seems to 
point inevitably to that or some similar scheme of popu- 
lar control becoming universal. 

When the voter arrives at the polls on the day of a 
primary election, he finds the ballots of each party bound 
in a separate book and lying on a table. The act provides, 
"Each elector shall have the right to receive the ballot 
of the party for which he asks; provided, that if he is 
challenged, he shall be required to make oath or affirma- 
tion that, at the last preceding election, at which he 
voted, he voted for a majority of the candidates of the 



234 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

party for whose ballot lie asks." 11 It is undeniable that 
this clause is ambiguous. It seems to suggest — indeed, 
the literal meaning of the words is, that a voter may have 
any ballot irrespective of his party affiliations, unless 
someone protests. This was the interpretation put upon 
it by many voters when the same provision appeared in 
the primary act of 1906, but the matter is no longer 
doubtful, for the enrollment act 12 clearly states that no 
person enrolled as a member of one party may have the 
ballot of another party. 

When vacancies happen after the primary they are 
filled by the parties according to their own rules. 

One difference between the procedure in the primary 
and the election is that the votes are canvassed and com- 
puted in the case of the primary by the county commis- 
sioners, and in the case of the election by the judges 
of the common pleas court sitting as return judges. 

Since the uniform primary acts were adopted in the 
interest of reform, it was possible to include in them 
numerous improvements, which, though apparently 
slight, were in reality important. The paragraph of the 
law making it more difficult to give unnecessary assist- 
ance is one of these, and the provision of the law in refer- 
ence to opening the ballot box is another. The shadow 
which rests upon our whole election procedure is the 
fact that it is made very difficult to have a ballot box 
opened and the count verified. The purity of the ballot 
ought to be absolutely above suspicion, and instead of 
making it difficult to have a ballot box opened and the 
contents recounted, it would be far better if the law 
would provide that a certain number of ballot boxes, de- 
termined by chance, must be opened at each election. 
Nothing would go farther towards discouraging crime at 
elections than the knowledge that detection would be 



(11) Sec. 13. 

(12) Sec. 9. 



THE PEIMAEY ELECTION. 235 

easy. The men who secured the passage of the uniform 
primary act were practical men who had had very dis- 
couraging experience in trying to have suspicious ballot 
boxes opened, and consequently, in drawing the new act, 
they took good care to provide an easy method by which 
the primary ballot boxes could be opened. The subse- 
quent history of this clause is enlightening. The pro- 
vision of the law as originally enacted is as follows : 
"Upon petition of ten qualified electors of any county, 
setting forth that fraud has been committed in any elec- 
tion district of said county, together with a statement of 
the reasons why such an assertion is made, it shall be 
the duty of the county commissioners to open the ballot 
box of the said district and to recount the vote. 13 

It would seem clear enough from this phraseology 
that if ten voters in the district believed that fraud had 
been committed and would so state, together with their 
reasons, that there was nothing for it but that the ballot 
box should be opened. The Supreme Court, however, 
decided that the duties of the county commissioners in 
this regard, are not merely ministerial but that the act 
vests in them a discretion to determine the sufficiency of 
the petition, and to reject any irregular or groundless 
applications. 14 

Of course, as the detailed evidence of the fraud was 
inside the ballot box, the new law so interpreted was not 
much better than the old one. The next time the Legis- 
lature got a chance they proceeded to put the law in 
such a shape as to overcome the difficulty raised by this 
interpretation, and so they provided, "Upon the sworn 
petition of five qualified electors of any election precinct, 
division or district, that any specific act of fraud, which, 
upon information which they consider reliable, they be- 
lieve has been committed in any election precinct, divis- 

(13) Act February 17, 1906, part of Sec. 11. 

(14) Madden vs. Moore, 228, Pa. 503. 



236 STATE GOVERNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

ion or district of the county, the court of common pleas 
of said county shall order the county commissioners to 
open the ballot box of said election precinct, division or 
district and recount the vote." 15 The changes made by 
this legislation were to reduce the number of petitioners 
from ten to five, to provide that the petitioners need only 
have information which they consider reliable, and they 
must only specify fraud which they believe has been 
committed. Also, instead of the petition being directed 
to the county commissioners in the first place, it is made 
to the court who shall order the county commissioner to 
open the ballot box. A further most significant change 
made in the law by this statute was that the five petition- 
ing electors might be of any district and not necessarily 
of the district the ballot box of which it was sought to 
open. Anyone who is familiar with practical election 
details knows that in the district where fraud is most 
likely to be perpetrated there is the least possibility of 
finding five citizens of sufficient backbone to institute the 
proceeding for the correction and detection of the fraud. 
Startling election frauds at the primaries of 1915 in 
Pittsburgh resulted in litigation which put this latter 
provision to a supreme test. It was contended by the 
eminent attorney for the parties who felt that their best 
interests would be preserved by preventing the opening 
of the ballot boxes that the law should be interpreted to 
mean that petitions for recount must be made by five 
electors in the district where a recount is asked. The 
court in its opinion shows how hard it is for the judicial 
mind to shake off the idea that there is something wrong 
about the opening of a ballot box. The court said, in 
part : 

"It is argued on the one part that the legislature could not 
have meant to authorize the opening of a ballot box upon the 
petition of five electors of some other precinct, and that, there- 



to) Act April 6, 1911, P. L. 43, Sec. 4. 



THE PEIMAEY ELECTION. 237 

fore, the allegation of fraud in "any" precinct must be construed 
to mean an allegation of fraud in "such" precinct or precincts. 

"And it is argued on 1 the other hand that as the legislature 
has used the term 'any precinct' in this connection, its words 
must be taken in their ordinary sense." 

"There is much force in each of these contentions, and the 
act might bear either interpretation." 

It is somewhat difficult for the non-judicial mind to 
see why the first argument has any force whatsoever, for 
there is no inherent reason why live electors of one pre- 
cinct should not petition for the opening" of a ballot box 
in another district, in fact, it is most normal and natural 
that they should do so, since the citizens who are willing 
to take the trouble to contest election frauds are more 
apt to be found in a district where fraud does not occur, 
than in the districts where it does. However, the court 
finally comes out on the right side and concludes the 
argument by saying : 

"We are of the opinion that it ought to be interpreted to 
further its general purpose, which is to preserve the sanctity of 
the ballot." !6 

The Supreme Court has taken the same position by 
affirming the opinion of the lower court in this case. 17 

Notwithstanding the care of the Legislature, how- 
ever, a loophole was still left. The draftsman had made 
a mistake in referring to "specific" acts of fraud. As 
long as the evidence lies securely locked in the box it is 
difficult to be sufficiently specific. So the Legislature 
tried it again, and made the following significant 
changes: 18 The word "specific" was omitted, so that 
the allegation of any fraud believed to have been com- 
mitted is sufficient, and then, fearful that the discrepancy 
that awakened the suspicion of the petitioners might be 

(16) Newspaper report appearing in the Philadelphia Public 
Ledger, Thursday, September 30, 1915. 

(17) Braddock Borough Election Case, 251 Pa. 110. 

(18) Act July 12, 1913, P. L. 719, Sec. 16. 



238 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

set down to error, and so not come under the statute, the 
words "or error" are added. 

NON-PAETISAN PRIMARIES AND ELECTIONS. 

The non-partisan primary and election act 19 repre- 
sents the current of election reform running counter to 
that represented by the party enrollment act. The non- 
partisan act affects only judges (including judges of the 
Supreme Court and Superior Court) and officers of cities 
of the second class. It would appear evident on the face 
of the act that it must be the mangled remains of a more 
comprehensive bill. That judges should be elected with- 
out reference to party is easy to comprehend. And it 
is not hard to understand why municipal officers should 
be elected on a non-partisan ballot, but it seems a little 
peculiar to limit the non-partisan system in municipal 
affairs to cities of the second class. The surface indica- 
tions are the truth. The non-partisan bill when intro- 
duced was a comprehensive and logical bill. Its voyage 
was stormy, and it came to port not without loss of cargo 
and rigging, but the important element, the non-partisan 
principle of election to office where party has no place, 
was preserved. 

When the non-partisan act becomes more familiar it 
will not appear intricate or confusing, but amid the revo- 
lutionary changes of the election laws made by the Legis- 
lature in 1913 it has not seemed to be well understood, 
and for this reason many refrain from voting for the 
non-partisan offices. 

In the non-partisan system the idea of a primary as 
a party function is entirely lost sight of and the theory 
substituted of a trial heat, or elimination race, where 

(19) Act July 24, 1913, P. L. 1001. Held constitutional in 
Winston vs. Moore, 244, Pa. 477. Amended by Act May 18, 1917, 
P. L. 



THE PRIMARY ELECTION. 239 

the hopeless candidates are weeded out and only the 
real contestants are allowed a place on the final ballot. 

This accomplishes in a clumsy, expensive and round- 
about way what could be done better by a system of 
transferable voting whereby the voter marked his first, 
second, third choice, etc. This subject lies Very close 
to that great electoral reform which will come with time, 
proportional representation, but as we are describing 
things in Pennsylvania as they are, rather than as they 
should be, we must pass this by. 

It will be remembered that the voter, when he regis- 
tered, was asked as to his party affiliations. If he cared 
to state his party membership he was registered as a 
member of that party. But if he did not, no party mem- 
bership was recorded for him. Consequently, at the 
succeeding primary, two classes of voters appear, those 
who were registered as party members, and those who 
were registered without any party affiliation. The party 
members are furnished with the ballot of their own party 
— for there is a separate ballot for each party — 
and in addition are given a non-partisan ballot contain- 
ing the names of the candidates for the offices covered by 
the non-partisan act. The second class of voters, not 
being registered as members of any party, cannot par- 
ticipate with any of the parties in choosing its candi- 
dates, but are restricted to voting the non-partisan bal- 
lot. Somehow the idea seems to have spread abroad that 
voters who do not declare their party connection cannot 
vote at the primary election at all, but this is entirely 
erroneous. Such voters have the same right as any oth- 
ers to vote the non-partisan ballot. 

When for any office covered by the non-partisan act 
one person is to be elected, the two persons receiving the 
highest number of votes on the non-partisan ballot at the 
primary, become the nominees. And, in general, twice 
as many nominees are taken from the highest on the list 



240 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

as there are persons to be elected. There is one rather 
singular exception to this. There is a provision in the 
act that in a case where one person is to be elected to 
an office, and some candidate gets a majority of the 
votes cast for that office, and also a number greater than 
one-half of all the ballots cast at the primary, he shall 
be the sole nominee. The purpose of this provision is 
ostensibly to obviate the necessity of a candidate going 
through the trials of an election when he has already 
demonstrated that he is the popular choice by obtaining 
a majority of all the votes cast at the primary. If every 
voter attended the primary, there would be no flaw in 
this reasoning, but every practical politician knows that 
the primary vote is always much less than the vote at the 
election. Unfortunately, *the difference is largely ac- 
counted for by the fact that the independent voter, the 
man with whom politics is not a trade, and who, there- 
fore, is a disinterested voter, is prone to stay away from 
the primary. Consequently, a candidate might easily 
receive a majority of the votes cast at the primary and 
still not be the popular choice. For this reason this pro- 
vision in the act must be condemned, although at the 
same time it must be admitted that the fundamental 
difficulty lies with the voters themselves for not partici- 
pating in the primary. 

At the election a separate ballot is no longer used, 
but the candidates nominated at the non-partisan pri- 
mary appear on the same ballot as the other candidates, 
though they are set off from the others by a solid border 
not less than one-sixteenth of an inch in width and are 
headed with the following words in large type, "judic- 
ial and city ticket — Nox-PAKTiSAN. ' ' Also, in ad- 
dition to the ordinary instructions printed on the 
ballot are instructions to the effect that a cross in the 
party square does not carry a vote for any judge or any 
other officer nominated at the non-partisan primary. 



THE PKIMAEY ELECTION. 241 

There are thousands of voters who either will not read 
the instructions at the head of the ballot, or else cannot 
understand them and go on marking the straight party 
ticket without respect to the non-partisan officers. These 
get what they deserve. They disfranchise themselves to 
that extent. As this becomes better understood the num- 
ber of such voters will probably decrease, and so gradu- 
ally the education in non-partisanship will spread until 
it will seem natural for everybody to follow party only 
where party has a right to be, and to disregard party 
where party has no place. 

The non-partisan primary and election is, of course, 
only an opportunity for non-partisan voting. It cannot 
change the motives for which people vote, and it is 
to be expected, as experience has proved, that the known 
party affiliation of the candidates will have much to do in 
attracting the votes which they receive. In fact, there 
are many cases where the party affiliation is about all 
the voter knows of the candidate. It is much easier to 
find out, for instance, whether a candidate for judge is 
a Eepublican, Democrat or Progressive, than it is to 
find out whether he is a good lawyer. Where the candi- 
dates are generally unknown to the mass of voters, as is 
apt to be the case in State-wide judgeship campaigns, 
there are always many voters who have no knowledge 
whatever of the candidates, but who will not refrain from 
voting on that account, and so vote at random. These 
are usually too lazy to go far down the column, so those 
candidates with names far up in the alphabet get a rather 
unfair advantage. The act should be amended to pro- 
vide, as has been done in some other States, that the bal- 
lots should be so arranged as to average this chance vote. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE ELECTION. 



IN Pennsylvania there is now but one regular election 
a year, held on the Tuesday following the first Mon- 
day of November. The election falling in the even 
numbered years is called the general election. At this 
time the voters choose presidential electors and State 
and national officers. The election falling in the odd num- 
bered years is called the municipal election and at it are 
chosen all local officers. Superior and Supreme Court 
judges may be elected at either time. 

This separation of local from general elections is sig- 
nificant of a great advance in the political life of Penn- 
sylvania. In treating of the irrelevancies of government 
by party, we have already suggested the folly of govern- 
ing a city by means of parties based on national issues. 
This evil was recognized by the makers of the Pennsyl- 
vania Constitution and they attempted to forestall it by 
providing that the local election should be held in Feb- 
ruary and the general election in November, hoping 
that this separation of elections would lead the people to 
combine in local parties in February and return to their 
national parties in November. Much was achieved by 
this arrangement, and it cannot be doubted but that vot- 
ing at the February election has been much more closely 
related to the local issues than would have been the case 
had the same offices been voted for in conjunction with 
offices of national significance, but the result fell far 
short of the anticipation. 

In the first place, county offices were not considered 
local, and hence many of the offices which are as truly 
local as the city offices, did not share in the separation. 
242 



THE ELECTION. 243 

In the second place the separation was not great enough 
in point of time. After the political effort expended on 
a general election the people were seldom in a mood to 
begin at once a new campaign for the February election. 
This condition naturally played into the hands of the 
professionals. Unsatisfactory as the system of dual 
elections was, however, it is not likely that it would have 
been altered for a long time to come, had not a reform 
in another direction made matters doubly bad in this. 
The uniform primary act, while not in reality making 
any more elections (for, of course, the parties always 
had some sort of primaries), seemed to introduce two 
more elections a year, making a total of four. This was 
sufficient to produce the motive power for a series of 
amendments to the Constitution, adopted in 1909, which 
provided a general election at the time of the election of 
President and Governor, that is to say the even num- 
bered years, and a local election in the odd numbered 
years, thus reducing the number of elections, counting 
primaries, to two a year. 

The election itself, although it is the crowning act 
to which registration, enrollment and primary but lead 
up, need not detain us long, because it is conducted under 
laws, which, for the most part, have been in force for a 
long time and are generally familiar. 

The voter enters the polling place and announces his 
name. Reference is made to the ballot check list, pre- 
pared from. the registrars' lists, and, if he is registered, 
he is given a ballot, unless his right to receive it is chal- 
lenged. This seldom happens, as all preliminary ques- 
tions have been disposed of on registration day. Practi- 
cally the only grounds on which a challenge can be based 
is that the applicant is not the person whom he repre- 
sents himself to be, or that he no longer resides in the 
election district. In the former case, the description 
contained in the register is compared with the applicant,, 



244 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

and he is compelled to sign Ms name for comparison with 
the signature at the time of registration. If it is claimed 
that he has removed, his affidavit on the subject is 
taken. 

On receiving his ballot the voter retires to a booth, 
fronted with a curtain. There he finds a little shelf, and 
a crayon pencil. If voters are waiting, he has but three 
minutes to mark his ballot. 

The ballot is, in reality, not difficult to mark, but 
under the conditions of hurry and bad light it is often 
confusing and many people of adequate intelligence in 
other matters feel themselves unequal to marking it in 
any way except the very easiest, the straight party vote. 
Voting in this manner is also stimulated by the carefully 
fostered tradition that the election officers will throw out 
split tickets as improperly marked, and the voter will 
lose his vote. Unfortunately, there is some truth in the 
latter fear, as the easiest election fraud is to throw out 
ballots arbitrarily on alleged technical grounds, and 
sometimes an officer or watcher, with a pencil end con- 
cealed in his hand, will surreptitiously add a cross to 
opposition ballots, and thus spoil them, yet leave no evi- 
dence of the crime. 

The fact that it is easier and safer to vote a straight 
party ticket constitutes the unfairness of the present 
ballot, for it discriminates against the candidate who 
may not happen to be on a full party ticket. The bal- 
lot box staffer may vitiate one election, but the unfair 
law taints all. The courts were urged to hold the pres- 
ent ballot law unconstitutional because this fundamental 
unfairness prevented the election from being "free and 
equal," but the Supreme Court did not see it that way. 1 

The first thing on the ballot is a column at the left 
composed of the names of the various parties, each with 



(1) Oughton vs. Black, 212 Pa. 1. However, three justices 
dissented. 



sample: ballot 



To vote a straight party ticket, mark a cross (X) iu Li,. 



first column, opposite the namo of the party of your choice 
to for that candidate. 

ie'srVeTto vote for a persorTwhose name- is not on the ballot, write or paste his name in the blank space provided for that purpose: 
i (X) in tho party square in tho Urst column does not carry a vote for any Judge. 

■lor Judge mark n cioss IX ) orpopit,/ Hie nam ■■ ••' the camlnlal.- H„..u,-rt. 



FIRST COLUMN 



to wn i sTMiGHi ptfm nun. its 



| DEMOCRATIC | 



n 



□ 



n 



□ 



j ROOSEVELT HHSRtSSUi | 



n 



□- 



I PERSONAL LIBERTY 



□ 





JUDICIAL TICKET 
Non-Partisan 


lily, of He Supalor Curt 


,«!„».- 




wuimi^ 




ln.»4 




HMi 




»^=».«-l- 




i.H~rn» 








Jld^t of ttle Coort cl" CommoJl Pleas No. 1 










ll^!o.ltlt6lrto[ 611101 Pita lo.l 


. ... I 


z:,z 


"j 












Jodge of lbs Coort of Cimod to So. J 










Jorigt of lit Orpins' Coort 


»™. wi.,. 




o™,,a,c..<, 


- 




Jrift ol lit MoDlclpal Court 


— — ■ 1 







u 



I SINGLE TAX j 



□ 



MAYOR 



CITY CONIl'U I EK 



CITY SOLICITOR 



K I ,C> ::- I: K : |i|-.l-:t> 



County Commissio 



(,- — 









MAGISTRATES (M.irk 111 



_& 






SELECT COUNCIL 



COMMON COUNCIL. 



m 



_.;;_ 









rVudilor I 






M 



Town Clerk 



ELECTION OFFICERS 



PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION 



A otoss (X) marked in tho square at the right of the word YES Indicates a vote FOR tha AMENDMENT. 

A cross (X) marked in the square at the right of the word NO indicates a vote AGAINST the AMENDMENT. 








• __ , , „• .. „i „„ „ „, „ : ^.^!, T r.™ ™ "™ L i^i^ ™°:i™ T ^^.*"' - ^;r^™viz'tTL_, _» 


YES 






NO 






.,- PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO HE CONSTITUTION No. 2 . . 


YES 






NO 






==SH=3SSSS^ 


YES 






NO 








YES 






NO 







WASHINGTON-Prirnary Billot 

39tll Election District 22d WARD 

City of Philadelphia. County of Philadelphia. State of Pennsylvania. Primary held on the 21st day of September, *9!5. 

Make a cross (X) in the square to the right of each candidate for whom you wish to vote. 
If you desire to vote for a person whose name is not on the ballot, write or paste his name in the blank space provided for that purpose; 



MAYOR 

(Vote <„ 1) 


MAGISTRATES (Vote for 11) 




SELECT COUNCIL 

(Vol. /or 1) 






^^ **SS&^*^ 


John McArthur Harris |_ 





Cecrge D. Porter _. 






Sheldon Potter 




Ben'amin F Anderson 








COMMON COUNCIL 








James B. Anderson _. 




Walter J. Littleton 




Pringle Borthvrick 




CITY CONTROLLER 


Benamin F Bache 








Richard Brady 






Harry G. Backman 




Daniel McArcy 




James M. Fox 












Edward B. Howard 








Fred J. Baker .- •• 




James J. McCann 








E. J. McAleer . . 




Harry T. Baxter 




Joseph T. McDentt . _' 




John R. Minehart 




John M. Walton 




William F. Beaton .... 


James J McGes ■ 




J. Leo Patton 






William H. Belcher 




John F. McNenny -...- 








CITY SOLICITOR 

(Vor. for 1) 


Jose h S Bo le 


















Al d Ham Hon Brooke 




John B. Middloton t 










James Burns, Jr. .. 




William E. Murphy 




CONSTABLE 


James Alcorn 




Thomas A. Can- _ 








Henry R. Nolte 


Mor s H Hamltt 




Samuel B. Scott 




J. Wilson Carte, 




Thomas Patterson 






. 










Clarence 0. Pratt 






RECORDER of DEEDS 

(Vol. tor I) 






Geo. W. Price 












- h F X C 1 




Charles H. Supsr..., _. 














^LRau ..... 








SCHOOL VISITORS 


Mux Henberg 1 


Joseph J. Da George 




Benjamin H. Rensha* 






John S. Deitz - - 




Harry F. Rhcada 




Eleanor C." Emlen. 




County Commissioners 


Louis J. Dorn , 




Theodore P. Sheneman 




Alice Landstreet - 




John A. Dougherty .. 




Anthony Tamburro 




Walter C. Ungstreth 






















- 


- 






Frank J, Corman 






Josep E, orrrton 


tv: . c TD^, 


Charles Fulmer - 


James H.Toughil,.... 








George F. Holmes 




James J. Gillespie - 

Wilbur F. Glenn 




Harry A. Wagner _. 

Rlchman P. Walker „ 




Jerries J. Finn 




James G. Ogden r-.— * 

Andrew J. Pf iff 




John W. GJovtr 

John J. Greti« 




Ralph Watson 

Andrew J. Wilson .". 


— 


Z. Taylor King - 




Willard Rrtter 

John 1. Somers 




Homer H. Hacker - 




Joseph Young 




Lemuel Z. Shsrmer . 

Charlss M. Thompson ........ 














Benjamin J Harrison 






















SHERIFF 












Auditor 








Harry J. Imber 




P E Dalrras 














U ' B L 11 




Clarence D. Antrim 


















C D Cox 








ja . ......... 












George K.aufmann - 






CORONER 


Robert C. Kelley 






Town Clerk 


Edwin J. King 














Wash. 22 

ELECTION OFFICERS 

JUDGE. 














Joseph J. Burke 




Henry W. Cattell 




Walter E. Went! - -- 


W.lliam R. Knight Jr 






John W. West 




INSPECTOR. ■ 




CLERK, CODRT or OYER and TIRIIHER 
aod QUARTER SESSIONS of trie PE1CE 




| 








ASSESSOR. 


Frank H. Thompson 




" ^ ' ' 


1 






H E WaJt 














»-*■-« 





THE ELECTION. 245 

a square after it in which a cross can be placed to vote 
for every candidate of the party on the ballot. 

Under the present law the candidates are grouped ac- 
cording to the office they are striving for, instead of ac- 
cording to the party by which they were nominated. 
Previously each party had its own column and a circle 
at the head, a cross in which voted for every man under 
it. Thus arose the expression, "Voting in the party 
column, ' ' which is still in current use to designate voting 
a straight party ticket. 

After the name of each candidate is printed the name 
of the party which nominated him, and then follows a 
square in which a cross mark may be made to vote for 
that candidate separately. 

After each office group are blank spaces where may 
be written or pasted the name of candidates not on the 
official ballot. This writing or pasting of names, is, of 
course, a troublesome process, and enough persons are 
not likely to do it to have any result on the election, but 
occasionally when a well organized effort is made to sup- 
ply voters with a name printed on a piece of gummed 
paper, called a sticker, an election can be won for a can- 
didate whose name does not appear on the ballot. 

The fear of the voter of spoiling his ballot has been 
augmented by what seems to be the over-technicality of 
the Supreme Court in this matter. 

A liberal construction of the election law would fol- 
low the rule in the construction of a will, that the intent, 
if ascertainable, should be given effect. The Supreme 
Court, however, does not take this attitude, holding, in 
a case where a voter had marked a name on a ballot and 
then written the same name in the blank space on the bal- 
lot, apparently for the purpose of allowing no possible 
mistake as to his desire to vote for that candidate : 

"It is not enough that the intention of the voter may possibly 
be ascertained or his irregular or equivocal acts explained by 



246 STATE GOVEBNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

other evidence than his ballot. The legislature specifically 
directed how it should be prepared and used by the voter, in order 
to avoid all such inquiries and the consequences likely to result 
therefrom. It was intended that the ballot when prepared by 
the voter and delivered to the proper election officer should be 
self explanatory. ' ' 2 

Even if the court will not allow the slightest ambiguity 

to be resolved by the election officers, it would at least 

seem that they might allow a ballot to be counted for all 

the offices about which there could be no shadow of 

doubt as to the voter's intention. So where a voter 

marks a cross in a party square and afterwards marks 

an individual candidate belonging to some other party, 

there would be some doubt, though not much, as to what 

he intended in relation to that particular office, but no 

doubt whatsoever as to the remaining offices. The 

statute does not seem doubtful. It provides : 

"If a voter has marked his ballot otherwise than as directed 
by this act, so that for any reason it is impossible to determine 
the voter's choice for any office to be filled, his ballot shall not be 
counted for such office; but the ballot shall be counted for all 
other offices for which the names of candidates have been properly 
marked " 3 

But the Supreme Court was inexorable and held that 
such a ballot must be thrown out entirely. 4 

A judge of election who had been confronted with 
this question and had been studying the digest of elec- 
tion laws in Smull's Legislative Handbook for light, re- 
marked, "The law said one thing and the Supreme Court 
said another, and I did what the law said." It is hard 
to blame him. 5 



(2) In re Contested Election .of Redman, 173 Pa. 59. 

(3) Act April 29, 1903, P. L. 338, Sec. 4. 

(4) Dailey's Appeal, 232 Pa. 540. 

(5) Summing up the law in the various states the writer in 
Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure says, "Almost every conceivable 
mark which a voter could make or omit to make has been the subject 
of discussion in the various cases which have been before the courts ; 
and although statutes regulating the manner in which voters shall 



THE ELECTION. 247 

Each party is entitled to two watchers. These are 
credentialed by certificates from the County Commis- 
sioners and are privileged to remain in the voting room 
not only all day, but, what is far more important, dur- 
ing the count at night. Only one watcher of each party 
is allowed in the voting room at one time. The purpose 
in having two is that they may relieve each other. This 
is quite necessary, as the hours of duty are from 6.45 
A. M. to midnight, and occasionally to daylight the next 
day, and the vigilance must be unremitting, for should 
there be a disposition to commit fraud, advantage is al- 
ways taken of even the smallest absence of the watcher. 

Besides the "watcher," there is also the "worker." 
The number of workers is unlimited save by the cam- 
paign fund available, or, more rarely, by the condition of 
public feeling. The watchers and workers together con- 
stitute that apparently aimless group that decorates the 
sidewalk before every polling place. The function of the 
worker is to "get out the vote." Every practical politi- 
cian knows that a vast number of voters, usually holding 
the balance of power, always follow the line of least re- 
sistance. This line is to stay at home, unless the worker 
is so active that the easier thing to do is to vote. Once 
there was an important election and eight to ten citizens 
had volunteered as workers during the late afternoon, 
when voting was briskest. The watcher on duty had on 
his list the name of a voter who had not yet been at the 
polls. The first worker to report for duty was sent after 
the delinquent voter and came back without him. The 
second worker was sent on the same mission without being 
apprised of the ill success of his predecessor. He like- 



indieate their choice are held to be mandatory, yet through it all 
runs the general principle of construction that a voter should not be 
disfranchised if it is clear that he has made an honest/ effort to com- 
ply with the requisites of the statute, although he has been more or 
less unsuccessful. 15 Cyc. 353. 



248 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

wise returned empty handed. So each arriving volunteer 
was commissioned and each returned to meet the eager 
group of earlier failures curious as to the manner of the 
last rebuff. Finally, the seventh man returned with the 
voter. Strange though it may seem, the victim said noth- 
ing to indicate to his last visitor that he was not his 
first. No doubt he reasoned that is was easier to vote 
than to entertain politicians all afternoon. 

The cohorts of the professional politicians are greatly 
superior in discipline and constancy to the groups of pub- 
lic spirited citizens engaged in public work, but when 
the public actually are aroused and the able men of the 
community come forward, the volunteer workers easily 
out-distance their professional opponents by reason of 
their greater intelligence, greater activity and better ad- 
dress. These volunteers are like the minute men, ready 
in time of stress to undergo great exertions for the gen- 
eral good, but, for the most part, leaving the routine work 
to the regulars. 

The count of the ballots is a laborious process, and, 
considering the pressure, the fatigue of the officers, the 
bad ventilation and insufficient or over-brilliant illumi- 
nation, it is marvellous that the results are as accurate 
as they are. 

The election officers are five in number. Foremost is 
the judge of election. Under the law he renders no de- 
cision unless the two inspectors cannot agree, when his 
decision is appealed to. But in practice he usually de- 
cides directly, and, in general, he is in charge. The two 
inspectors represent the majority and minority parties 
respectively and are the court of first instance in decid- 
ing points raised during the election. Each inspector has 
a clerk. 

The statutes give quite detailed directions as to how 
the count is to be conducted, but these are mostly honored 
in the breach. If the election officers are honest and in- 



THE ELECTION. 249 

telligent, not much more need be hoped for. Great tally 
sheets are provided, ruled in little squares with the 
names of the candidates in a column at the left of the 
sheet. The judge opens the ballot box and reads each 
ballot, while the officers in charge of the tally sheets mark 
a stroke after the name of the candidate voted for. 
Straight party voting unquestionably facilitates the 
count, and primary elections, where there can be no 
straight voting, where there is a multiplicity of candi- 
dates and a confusing number of ballots, are the despair 
of election officers. In some cases election boards have 
been known to be still hard at work late the day after 
election. 

The straight votes are separated and totalled and an 
appropriate number of strokes quickly inserted after 
each name. The watcher must be keenly attentive to see 
that no split ballot is hurried into the pile of straights. 
This is a "mistake" that may happen under the most 
honest judge, as there may be sleight of hand artists 
among the other persons in the room. Also, the watcher 
should see that the ballot box does not leave his sight a 
single second, lest it become a changeling. 

In cities a policeman always attends the count and 
secures the result for important offices as soon as it is 
ascertained. He hurries off to headquarters with this, or 
telephones it if he is at a distance. Thus that marvel- 
ously speedy information is obtained which enables the 
newspapers to give the important results often before the 
election boards have completed the details. 

From the tally sheets, returns are made up in tripli- 
cate on large sheets prepared beforehand. One of these 
sheets is posted outside the polling place for the informa- 
tion of the locality, and another becomes the official re- 
turn, and the third is given to the minority inspector to 
serve as a check against any alteration that might be 
attempted after the returns are signed. 



250 STATE GOVERNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

When the election is close and it becomes evident that 
the computation of the vote will have to be watched with 
greatest care lest an error cost the election, the wise cam- 
paigner will send instantly to every division for a copy 
of the returns from the paper posted outside. Armed 
with this he can prepare his petitions for opening ballot 
boxes, and can detect any discrepancy in the returns as 
filed. Unfortunately, by reason of gross carelessness 
and sometimes downright fraud, these discrepancies are 
by no means unusual. 

The computing is done under the supervision of 
judges of the Court of Common Pleas sitting as return 
judges, and monotonous work it is. In this way county 
totals are secured. In the case of officials elected by 
the State at large the final computing is done at a joint 
session of the two houses of the general assembly. 

THE AFTERMATH. 

Of all the treasons that assault the State, bribery and 
election fraud are the most insidious. Of the two, bribery 
is the worse, in that it corrupts not only the vote, but also 
the voter. This crime is most difficult to uproot because 
it depends on a state of mind, a thing notoriously hard 
to prove. Also, sad to relate, the candidate is often more 
sinned against than sinning, for the electorate often in- 
sist on something that very nearly approaches bribery, 
as Poo Bah, in the "Mikado," after being insulted by 
being offered a gratuity, turns his back with his hollowed 
hands behind and says, "Insult me again." 

England has taken the lead in providing definite legis- 
lation for protecting the purity of elections, denning in 
detail what may not be done. In 1883 was passed the 
Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act. 6 This is a sweeping 



(6) cf. A. Lawrence Lowell. The Government of England. Vol. I, 
p. 222ff, rTew York, The Macallan Company. 1908. 



THE ELECTION. 251 

and stringent piece of legislation, and what is more to 
the point, it seems to be rigidly enforced. It is no un- 
usual thing for members elected to Parliament to lose 
their seats on account of illegal practices of their agents 
of which the candidates have no knowledge. 

The electoral conditions in Pennsylvania are not simi- 
lar to those in England, although it can hardly be main- 
tained that they are less perverted, but election perver- 
sion has in this State been usually due either to actual 
fraud, or by that intangible but very real intimidation 
which the powerfully organized "gangs" in control in 
the large cities are able to exert. Nevertheless there had 
long been a crying need for legislation similar to the cor- 
rupt practices act in England. The penitential session 
of 1906 produced this also as a work meet for repent- 
ance. 7 The act was modeled on the English precedent 
and was largely the work of the late Senator Algernon T. 
Roberts, of Montgomery County, a man who combined 
in a marked degree practical political ability with high 
ideals and broad outlook, whose removal from public life 
by death in his early manhood, was a great loss to the 
State. 

The theory of the act is to secure an account for all 
money spent on elections. Accordingly, every candidate 
either at a primary or regular election is required to file 
an account of his expenses, every political committee 
must similarly account, and nobody is permitted to ex- 
pend any money on elections except he file an account 
of it or contribute it to a candidate or committee, who 
must account for it. Thus, as far as words can secure it, 
all money spent on elections will be publicly accounted 
for. No limit is put on the total amount spent. Probably 
it was felt that to put a limit would simply add to the 
temptation to conceal expenditures, while the confession 
to large expenditures would tend to correct the evil as 

(7) Act March 5, 1906, P. L. 78. 



252 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

people awoke to the knowledge that elections were not 
carried by principles, but by cash. 

It is undeniable that primary elections have increased 
the visible amount of money necessary to secure nomina- 
tions, and in some quarters there has been shown a dis- 
position to bring an indictment against the uniform pri- 
mary system on this score. It should arouse some sus- 
picion to note that such attacks emanate from sources al- 
ways hostile to the system before it was inaugurated. No 
one familiar with actual election practice would be de- 
ceived. Under the older convention system the money 
necessary to win nominations did not appear in filed ex- 
pense accounts. That was before the time of the cor- 
rupt practices law, though had there been such a law, 
money spent on delegates was seldom spent in such a 
way that the candidate would dare account for it. Often 
baser exchange than mere filthy lucre was current. Turn- 
ing on the light often reveals, but does not create evil con- 
ditions. The truth is that under the convention system 
campaigns for nominations could hardly be made by in- 
dividuals at all, for there was no protection to their 
rights at the soap box primaries, and no assurance that 
the delegates when elected would remain faithful, so as 
a general rule the party resigned itself to the control of 
its bosses, and they picked as bad candidates as they 
thought they could elect. The inauguration of the law- 
protected primary has stimulated political ambition and 
enabled independent men to make, with some hope of suc- 
cess, a direct appeal to the people. To get the attention 
of a large number of people is apt to be expensive, hence 
arise the complaints against the primary law. 

After providing that all election expenses be ac- 
counted for, the law then enumerates the lawful purposes 
of expenditure and forbids expenditure for any other 
purpose. 



THE ELECTION. 253 

Eight kinds of expenditure are lawful: 

First. For printing and travelling expenses, and personal ex- 
penses incident thereto, stationery, advertising, postage, expressage, 
ireighfc, telegraph, telephone, and public messenger service. 

Second. For dissemination of information to the public. 

Third. For political meetings, demonstrations and conventions, 
and for the pay ^and transportation of speakers. 

Fourth. For the rent, maintenance and furnishing of offices. 

Fifth. For the payment of clerks, typewriters, stenographers, 
janitors and messengers actually employed. 

Sixth. For the employment of watchers at primary meetings 
and elections, to the number allowed by law. 

Seventh. For the transportation of voters to and from the polls. 

Eighth. For legal expenses bona fide incurred in connection with 
any nomination or election. 

After the election, primary or regular, every person 
liable to account must file an itemized statement accom- 
panied by a voucher for every sum in excess of ten dol- 
lars. To prevent a flood of unimportant accounts and 
the public annoyance occasioned by useless requirements, 
where the expenditures have been less than fifty dollars 
a simple affidavit to that effect is sufficient. 

It is much easier to draw and secure the passage of 
an act requiring minute attention by a great number of 
people, than it is to secure its enforcement. The act is 
drawn with this in view and takes every precaution possi- 
ble. Any violation of the act is, of course, a misdemean- 
or. More than that, it is provided that no person elected 
can take office until his account is filed, and where any 
illegal expenses have been incurred, the office is declared 
vacant. Not content with such general provisions, the 
law details how the fact of the failure to file a proper 
account can be established. A petition by five electors 
praying for an audit of any expense account is sufficient 
to set the machinery in motion. The court then must 
take the matter up and may appoint an auditor. Ex- 
perience has proved that proceedings before an auditor 
can be very expensive, and as the costs must be paid by 
those who initiate the proceedings if they fail, this fact 



254 STATE GOVEKNMENT IX PENNSYLVANIA. 

is an undue discourager of showing up wrong doing. For 
this reason, the act wisely limits the fee of the auditor 
to ten dollars a day. 

The best security for the enforcement of the law is 
the jealous watchfulness of political enemies, but even 
this is marred by their consciousness of being tarred with 
the same stick and the fear of setting embarrassing pre- 
cedents. It is perhaps too much to say that all money 
spent on elections is now accounted for, but even the 
amounts accounted for are surprisingly large and prove 
that many men will spend more than the total salary 
of their office in order to be elected. Many a man, as he 
foots up his expense account, must question whether the 
game is worth the candle. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



BKEAKING INTO POLITICS. 



THROUGHOUT this book we have spoken often of 
the practical citizen, but have shunned all mention 
of the practical politician as a thing of ill omen not 
to be spoken of. As we are striving, however, to be prac- 
tical, we must not shut our eyes to what exists in reality, 
and therefore, it will be worth our while to spend a mo- 
ment in pointing out just the difference between the prac- 
tical citizen and the practical politician. On examina- 
tion of the words themselves, we will see that the differ- 
ence does not reside there. The word practical is pres- 
ent in both expressions and politician differs, as a word, 
from citizen, only in its derivation. Politician has come 
to us from the Greek, citizen from the Latin, and both 
mean exactly the same thing, one who has to do with 
the things of a city. Since in early times a city meant 
the same thing as a State, the term citizen and politician 
both meant anyone who was interested in public affairs. 
How does it come about then that expressions with so 
identical a meaning have come to be so strongly con- 
trasted in modern usage! Around the term practical 
politician has gathered a crowd of associations which 
has rendered it almost a term of reproach. Bare of such 
associations, practical suggests efficiency, the nice fitting 
of means to ends, the elimination of the unnecessary, the 
concentration of attention. In this world of moral judg- 
ments, however, efficiency must always be judged by the 
ends which it assists in attaining, and when practical is 
used in connection with politician, the combined phrase 
has, through long usage, come to mean a man who is 
more practical than moral, more interested in achieving- 

255 



256 STATE GOVERNMENT IX PEXXSYLYAXIA. 

the result than in the means by which the result is achiev- 
ed or by the worth of the result itself. On the other hand, 
the word practical, when combined with citizen has no 
such connotation. As before, practicality means the 
choosing of the proper means and the subordinating of 
irrelevancies, but this may mean the sacrifice of the prac- 
tical citizen's personal ambition, the surrender of office 
or the loss of an election. The difference then between 
the two classes of men is in their motives. Both must be 
practical. 

We may safely assume that any reader who has fol- 
lowed this far is imbued with the motive of public ser- 
vice, and, therefore, it is now time for us to enter into a 
discussion of the way in which this motive may be ren- 
dered of practical advantage in public life. 

When a person once makes up his mind to be a practi- 
cal citizen, his first duty is to inform himself about the 
questions which are pressing for solution in public af- 
fairs and then to make himself perfectly familiar with 
the machinery by which the opinion of the individual 
citizen is registered in connection with the solution of 
these problems. "When these studies have been faith- 
fully made, and the citizen has conscientiously cast his 
vote, it may be that he has done all that can rationally 
be expected of him. This is true of many thousands of 
our citizens, but there is a large class, numbering far 
more than would generally be conceded, of those who can 
and ought to do more in public matters than has been 
their wont, before they can be considered to have dis- 
charged their full duty. The citizen who does nothing 
more than vote may be likened to the private in the 
army, a very necessary part of the whole organization. 
But just as the private soldiers would be helplessly 
doomed to destruction unless officered by men of super- 
ior knowledge, so the ordinary voter would but wander 
hopelessly in the chaos of affairs if there were not a 



BEEAKING INTO POLITICS. 257 

group of citizens who could act as leaders. These lead- 
ers have their differences of rank, too, and rise in grade 
from the division leader up to ward, city, State and na- 
tional leaders. The chief difference between the practi- 
cal politician and the practical citizen acting as a leader 
of public opinion is that the practical politician is a pro- 
fessional in the sense that his livelihood is more or less 
intimately connected with his ability and success in po- 
litical management, while the practical citizen is an ama- 
teur, in the sense that his activity is based merely upon 
his love of his fellowmen. Since the motive power of 
the need of a livelihood is usually greater than that 
of altruism, the practical politician is usually much more 
consistently energetic than the practical citizen. Indeed, 
it is rarely possible that a practical citizen can afford to 
give the time and attention which he fully realizes is 
necessary in order to obtain the desired result. Yet the 
practical citizen frequently worsts the practical politi- 
cian in his own sphere of action. Being moved by princi- 
ple he is more consistent than his opportunist competi- 
tor, being an idealist he is usually a higher type, most 
of all, he fights with the right upon his side. The win- 
ning of battles by a practical citizen has this strange dif- 
ference from the battles won by the practical politician : 
When the practical politician wins his battle, he achieves 
the result immediately in view, but all other things re- 
main as before, while when the practical citizen wins a 
battle he raises to a higher level all of public life. 

One of the points long in controversy has now been 
definitely won by the practical citizen. At a time not 
long passed away it was actually difficult, as a matter 
of law, to get into touch with the realities of political 
action. Theodore Eoosevelt gives a vivid description of 
the earlier state of affairs in his autobiography: "At 
that day, in 1880, a young man of my bringing up and 
convictions could join only the Republican Party, and 

i7 



258 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

join it I accordingly did. It was no simple thing to join 
it then. That was long before the era of ballot reform 
and control of primaries; long before the era when we 
realized that the government must take official notice 
of the deeds and acts of party organizations. The party 
was still treated as a private corporation, and in each 
district the organization formed a kind of social and 
political club. A man had to be regularly proposed for 
and elected into this club, just as into any other club. As 
a friend of mine picturesquely phrased it, *I had to 
break into the organization with a jimmy.' " 1 The con- 
ditions at present surrounding activity in public 
life allow a wider choice of entry. The newcomer 
in public affairs must make a fundamental choice 
at the outset of his career. He may either join 
one of the major national parties and strive to 
work out his ideals through it; or he may join one of 
the numerous independent parties which spring into 
being from time to time, which have their day and cease 
to be. If he choose the first, he will be known as a re- 
former within the party; if the second, as an independ- 
ent, There is no other alternative for anyone who would 
have a practical effect in shaping public affairs, although 
there are thousands who from a self-assumed position 
of superior virtue indiscriminately condemn everyone 
who is attempting to do anything in actual public life for 
the general good. It is possible for a practical citizen 
to be useful in either course. If he attempts his reform 
within the party he has the advantage of the dead weight 
momentum of party loyalty and party prestige based on 
past achievements, but also he must face the enormous 
disadvantage of the fact that this same mass momentum 
will carry him in directions which he would not. The 
man who enters independent politics fights against the 

(1) Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography. The MacMillan 
Company, New York, 1913, p. 62. 



BKEAKING INTO POLITICS. 259 

handicap of being compelled continually to re-create 
his machinery and to profit wholly from the issues 
of the present, without the prestige of a glorious past. 
He must fight against political habits, mental laziness 
and many other of the vices of human nature, but he has 
the far-reaching advantage that when he is enabled 
to win a victory, it is a clean-cut victory recognized by 
all as somewhat out of the ordinary, and, therefore, of 
much more lasting influence upon affairs in general. The 
two theories which lead some to become reformers with- 
in the party and some independents we have seen previ- 
ously at work influencing the present conditions of the 
election laws; the one producing the uniform primaries, 
which, of course, are designed to enable members of a 
party to have an influence over it ; and the other produc- 
ing the non-partisan ballot, the separation of elections 
and other devices intended to give the independent citi- 
zen as much opportunity as possible to express his de- 
sires without being confused with national questions. 
Which method any particular individual will adopt is 
probably largely a question of temperament. Unques- 
tionably a citizen may make himself useful in either way. 
If we but hold fast to our conception that it is the motive 
which distinguishes the practical citizen from the practi- 
cal politician, we can with perfect good will look upon 
the differences which divide the reformer within the 
party from his co-workers in the independent sphere, 
as simply differences of opinion as to the best means of 
achieving a common end. The choice is such as would 
have to be made by a traveler returning to the land that 
he loves, who, on coming to the hither shore of a vast 
lake, found two vessels about to sail for home. One was 
a great and staunch ship, but filled with a heterogeneous 
company, some of them most vile and boding no good 
to the home land, if they should reach it. The other ves- 
sel was shallow, and narrow, and open, and short, its 



260 STATE GOVEBNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

crew was not complete and its provisions were scanty, 
but its company were all men of good will, and their 
homecoming would be a cause of rejoicing. The traveler 
might well argue, "I hope to benefit my country with 
the wisdom I have gained in my travels, but to do so I 
must first of all attain its shores ; that sfaunch ship will 
surely reach the other side, while this poor shallop 
seems like to founder in the first gale or starve her crew 
should adverse winds delay. As a practical man, I can 
but take the safe way home, but, it cannot escape me that 
there are many evil men aboard the former vessel, and 
if I help navigate her home, I must by that act bring 
to my country's shores much that will hurt her. Shall I 
join the single minded rowers in the little ship and ex- 
ert myself to bring them and me across, or shall I give 
myself to missionary efforts on the larger boat and hope 
to improve the manners of her company that they may 
do her less harm when they safely arrive"? One thing 
the traveler does not try to do. He does not attempt to 
swim over alone, but joins with one or other set of asso- 
ciates. And so our practical citizen, having made his 
choice, will want to know the next step in making him- 
self felt in the type of party which he has chosen. 

All parties are organized on the same general plan. 
One or more delegates are chosen by the party voters 
of each election district to represent them in a ward 
committee. The ward committee chooses delegates to a 
city or county committee. Thus it is evident that the 
election district is the constituent unit. 

In entering actual political life it is first necessary 
to become "a factor," that is to say trie newcomer must 
make himself a person whose decisions are of in- 
fluence beyond the control of his own vote, so 
that the leaders higher in rank who are direct- 
ing affairs and thinking in terms of larger units 
may look to him for definite results from his 



BKEAKING INTO POLITICS. 261 

own district. It is easiest and most natural first to 
become a factor in the election division. While it is some- 
times possible to spring fnll armed into the arena of ward 
or city politics, such action is very rare and is not 
normal, and, indeed, such a person would always suffer 
from the lack of primary political education. Success 
in politics, as in any other serious avenue of human en- 
deavor, depends upon the ability, industry and charac- 
ter of the persons engaged. It is, therefore, impossible 
to predict of any particular individual what his success 
will be, but it may be pointed out in general that char- 
acteristics of personal likability are of vastly greater 
importance in politics than they are in other walks of 
life. Since the basis of political power is the ability to 
get people to vote for you or as you advise, it is evident 
that the more people come to like you the greater will 
be your success. Kindliness, approachability and sym- 
pathy are greater weapons in the political arena than 
mental ability or power of oratory. Indeed, it is a sad 
thing to realize to what an extent these good qualities 
of human nature have been expended in the attaining 
of selfish ends. If our practical citizen can but secure 
that. a fair majority of the voters in his division will like 
him and have an interest in his advancement, he is in a 
fair way to take the first step in his political career. 

There is a marked difference in the rapidity with 
which advancement may be obtained in a great national 
party and in an independent party. Entrance to an in- 
dependent party is extremely easy, because such parties 
never have an overplus of workers and anybody who 
will show the slightest activity is welcomed to their 
ranks. And here lies danger, for the lack of competition 
is apt to induce laziness, while the inability to replace 
a poor worker tends to keep him in his place when he 
is not proving his usefulness. It is also true that in an 
independent party advancement may possibly be more 



262 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

rapid, for sudden turns take place at times, and the 
small independent body may one day find itself in power 
and needing to expand its ranks to the full complement 
of a majority party. In the very nature of things, this 
cannot be expected to happen often, else the party could 
not be called an independent party, it would be the party 
in power. 

In a national party the new recruit is apt to find his 
entrance not so easy and his progress slower, because 
the competition will be much greater. In case he finds 
difficulty he must decide whether to break in or await 
his turn. If he decides on the former, he must endeavor 
to defeat the present ward committeemen at the next 
election for that office. If his fight is part of a larger 
fight for control, by a new faction of the party, a vigor- 
ous battle will be the part of wisdom, but if he is start- 
ing out as an individual and there is no movement in the 
party, it would not ordinarily be wise to try to oust a 
well entrenched division leader. There is a deeprooted 
feeling in the political mind that every man has a right 
to his job, and that there is something wrong in compet- 
ing for a place already filled by a man of your own party. 
Where there is a general fight, the result is looked upon 
as the fortune of war and politicians least of all fighters 
cherish malice against the enemy. But where there is 
no war an attack on a single place is looked upon as a 
sort of treachery, and the man who was successful in 
such an attack would be looked upon as an interloper in 
the circles to which he had attained, and would leave be- 
hind him in the very citadel of his power a bitterness 
that might well accomplish his downfall, and at best 
would cause him much anxiety and at a time when he 
would need support in larger spheres of action. No poli- 
tician wants enemies, especially not in his own division. 
So, if there is no vacancy in the position of division leader 
and no general fight for control the aspiring worker had 



BKEAKING INTO POLITICS. 263 

better make himself conspicuously useful to his party on 
the stump, or in any other way he can. One of the best 
methods of making a political impression is to run for 
some minor local office, such as judge of election or as- 
sessor of the division. This last office is peculiarly valu- 
able as an introduction to political life, for its duties 
require a thorough familiarity with the name and resi- 
dence of every voter within the division. Under any cir- 
cumstances, a man entering political life should make 
himself "solid" in his home division, and, of course, as 
he rises, spread his solidity over as large a territory as 
possible. Achieving this solidity is a different thing 
from deserving it. Some direct contact with the indi- 
vidual voiters is necessary. The basis of political power 
in America is the good nature of the people. Where 
there is no adverse personal interest the average voter 
would rather do a good turn than not. When a 
friendly looking politician asks for a vote as a personal 
favor, the impulse of the majority is to give it on that 
ground alone. Only a strong stimulus reaching their 
moral nature or their pocketbook will induce the voter 
to turn down a fellowman asking a costless favor. The 
new-comer in politics must realize this and must over- 
come the usual hesitancy in asking people to do things 
for him. Probably the greatest defect in the ordinary 
practical citizen as a political factor is his unwilling- 
ness to ask the assistance of his fellow citizens on per- 
sonal grounds. 

Another source of power possessed by the worker 
in politics is the fact that he is a custodian of a fund 
of special information. He knows how the ballot should 
be marked and when all the various steps in the intri- 
cate requirements of election must be taken. He knows 
something about each of the many candidates, and the 
average voter, who knows little about the candidates ex- 
cept those heading the ticket, will willingly be led by a 



264 STATE GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

man of such superior information. This trust which is 
placed in the worker by many of his fellow citizens en- 
ables him to attain the results which are the grounds for 
his claim to recognition. The voting of a ballot is not 
actually an intricate affair, although it is impossible to 
suppress astonishment at the high grade of intelligence 
which frequently finds the ballot baffling, notwithstand- 
ing the fact thait the most explicit directions are placed 
upon the ballot in large type. On another page will be 
found reproductions of several ballots. It will be worth 
the reader's while to study these ballots and actually read 
every word of directions upon them. Doing this calmly 
and at his leisure, and away from the turmoil of an 
actual election, he will probably be surprised to find how 
complete and explicit the directions are, and will realize 
what a shameful thing it is for voters of ordinary in- 
telligence to surrender their privilege of franchise to the 
politician on the ground that the ballot is too intricate 
to master. 

After having become some kind of a political 
factor the practical citizen must decide whether he can 
serve best by running for office or by managing political 
affairs without taking a public position. This question 
of seeking public office is a vital one, and must be faced 
sooner or later by every earnest citizen in practical pub- 
lic work. Some day, if he has done good work, will come 
the suggestion that he run for office. Since there are so 
many of those whose sole reason for desiring office is 
the emoluments, such a man must be prepared to have 
his motives misunderstood. Unselfish office-seeking is 
so rare a phenomenon as usually to pass unrecognized, 
but probably by this time our practical citizen is accus- 
tomed to being misunderstood and will not be deterred. 
To be urged to accept office is flattering, espec- 
ially when urged by those whose ideals of office holding 
are high, and our practical citizen must examine himself 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS. 265 

to be sure that lie is not yielding to vanity. Before de- 
ciding to make the race, the practical citizen should be 
very sure that he can afford from a financial point of 
view to hold office. This does not mean that he must be 
a rich man; still less does it mean that he feels able to 
live on the salary of the office. It means, rather, can he 
step back at the end of his term into the same level of 
self-support as before, so that the question of the salary 
of the office is a matter of indifference. For the practi- 
cal politician offices are frankly spoils. As long as poli- 
ticians are so numerous and so constantly in office, we 
can do little but wonder that the State survives as well 
as it does, and be thankful for that underlying stratum 
of patriotism animating most Americans which keeps 
their government by spoilsmen from collapsing all to- 
gether. But no man questioning whether his duty calls 
him to take office ought ever to decide in the affirmative 
if the salary is an important consideration, and its loss 
a thing to be dreaded. In such a case his judgment can 
never be unfettered. Either he will succumb to the press- 
ure of material interests and awake some day to ac- 
knowledge himself a member of the bread and butter 
brigade, or, what is more likely in the case we are con- 
sidering, he will torment his conscience with the fear 
that he may be yielding to such an influence, and, by 
leaning over backward, become a constant nuisance to 
everybody who has dealings with him. Some rare souls 
can keep a perfect balance of judgment under such cir- 
cumstances, but no one is justified in assuming that he is 
one of this number, and placing himself in a position 
where his discovery that he was not would be disastrous. 
But supposing that the financial question is not a factor 
and calm self-examination shows that the pomp of office 
is not the attraction, and that a reasonable ability exists, 
then the call is clear. Our country needs, woefully needs 
unselfish office holders. When a foreign enemy threatens 



266 STATE GOVEKNMENT IN" PENNSYLVANIA. 

millions of men spring to arms prepared to die to 
save their country, but when graft and corruption are 
rotting the core of the city, State and nation, where 
are the men to hold the posts of responsibility and diffi- 
culty and lead onward to a better day? 

While office-holding is the most conspicuous method 
of public service for the practical citizen, it is not the 
only method. A rarer ability and a greater sacrifice is 
required of those faithful souls who in the obscurity of 
tobacco-filled committee rooms and without the stimulus 
of public applause, dedicate their talents to the wise 
management of the political cause in which they have 
embarked. Whenever any movement for better things 
in public life succeeds, it may be taken for granted that 
some such citizens have been found to take the lead. It 
is unfortunate that the services of such men, necessarily 
obscure, are seldom appraised at their true worth or find 
their way into the history of the times. As the number 
of our practical citizens grows, the worth of these men 
will be better appreciated and they will come into their 
own. 1 

For every one there is some place of public useful- 
ness. Our highest hopes for our country will never be 
fulfilled until each citizen plays his full part. Differ- 
ences of opinion about forms of government and policies 
there will ever be. Some of us are by nature radical and 
some conservative, but all unite in realizing that what- 
ever policies are adopted, nothing but the most loyal 
shouldering of public duty by every citizen will bring 
them to full fruition. 



(1) The rule that we should not mention names may well be 
suspended in the case of those who have passed away. The wise 
and gentle judgments of Andrew R. Wight of G-ermantown are still 
a fragrant memory to those who knew him, a perfect example of the 
dedication of unusual powers to the service of the public by counsel 
in political management while steadfastly refusing to seek or accept 
public office. 



INDEX 

Page 

Adjutant General 77 

Aldermen 123 

Apportionment 13, 14 

Appropriation Bills 33, 40, 44, 46 

Art Jury 162, 163 

Assistance to Voters 229, 230 

Attorney General 77, 78, 108 

Auditor General 77, 78, 106, 115 

Automobile Licenses 114 

Ballot 244fe. 

Bill 19, 25, 26, 27, 29, 42, 71 

Board of Agriculture 105 

Censors of Moving Picture Films 121 

Education 88 

Game Commissioners 112 

Passenger Railways 81 

Property 81 

Public Education 93 

To License Private Bankers 81 

Trustees, State Library 81 

Boroughs 70, 143, 179, ff. 

British Statutes 69 

Budget 53 

Building and Loan Associations . . . 102 

Bull Moose Party 205 

Bureau of Assessment and Taxes 83 

Boiler Inspection 159 

Building Inspection 159 

Chemistry 104 

City Property 159 

Correction 159 

Dairy and Food '. 103 

Economic Zoology 103 

Elevator Inspection 159 

Electrical 159 

Employment 119 

Fire 159 

Gas 160 

Highways 159 

Industrial Statistics 84 

Lighting 160 

Markets 104 

Mediation and Arbitration . . . : 118 

Railways 84 

Standards 84 

Street Cleaning 159 

Surveys ■ • • • 160 

267 



268 



INDEX. 



Page 

Bureau of Water 160 

Charitable Appropriations 41, 47, 49, 50, 53, 65, 115 

Child Labor Laws , 60 

Citi es 143, 153 

of the First Class 156 ff. 

of the Second Class 168 ff. 

of the Third Class 171 ff. 

Citizenship „ 216 

City Party 196 

Civil Service Reform 63, 74, 163, 178 

Clerk of Quarter Sessions 136, 146 

Codification 68 

Corporations 70 

General Repealer 70 

Taxation 70 

Commissioner, County 147, 148 

Fisheries 112 

. Forestry 109 

Health 95, 116 

Highway 114 

Insurance . 100 

Labor and Industry "77, 119 

Commission Form of Government 82, 170 

Commission of Agriculture 103 

Economy and Efficiency Frontispiece, 74 

Fisheries 112 

Historical 115 

Industrial Home for Women 73 

Public Service 107 

Sinking Fund 81, 159, 169 

Water Supply Ill 

Committees " 17, 20, 23, 46 

Agriculture 21 

Appropriations 20, 48, 53 

Conference 33 

Education 21 

Judiciary General 20 

Judiciary Special 20 

Municipal Corporations 21 

of the Whole 26, 35 

Committee on Committees 17 

Constitution of Pennsylvania 7, 8, 18, 19, 50, 82 

Cabinet 76, 78 

Continuation Schools 94 

Convention System - 252 

Coroner 145 

Corrupt Practices Act 63, 250 ff. 

Council 156, 158, 169, 174 



INDEX. 269 

Page 

Count of Ballots 248 

Counties 143, 145 ff. 

County Court 128 

County Auditor 148 

Comptroller 148 

Treasurer 148 

Court of Common Pleas 89, 129, 134 

Court of Quarter Sessions 131, 136 

Democrats . 206 

Department, Accounts and Finance 174 

Agriculture 103, 105 

Banking 101 

Charities and Correction 169 

City Controller 159, 161, 169 

City Transit 159, 161 

City Treasurer '. . 159, 161, 169 

Collector of Delinquent Taxes 169 

Education 87, 95 

Fisheries 112 

Forestry 109 

Health 92, 115 

Highway 114 

Insurance 100 

Internal Affairs 83 

Labor and Industry 77, 118 

Law 159, 169 

Mines 118 

Parks and Public Property 174 

Public Affairs 174 

Public Health and Charities 159, 160, 161, 163 

Public Safety 159, 169, 174 

Public Works 159, 169 

Receiver of Taxes 159, 161 

Streets and Public Improvements 174 

Supplies 159, 160 

Wlharves, Docks and Ferries 159, 161 

District Attorney 146 

Dogs 30 ff. 

Domestic Relations 133 

Enacting Clause 19 

Enrollment 196, 197, 202 

Elections 148, 243 

Election Laws 62 

Election Expenses 250 ff. 

Executive Department 76, 78, 85 

Expenditures 54, 55 

Federal Government 3, 17 



270 INDEX. 

Page 

Fire Marshal 101 

Franklin Party 196 

General Assembly 10, 15 

Governor 29, 78, 87, 95, 105 

House of Representatives 10, 25, 28, 33, 34, 35, 38, 40, 41 

Independent 258 

Incorporated Towns 143, 179, 182 

Initiative 175, 177, 194, 195 

Interstate Commerce Commission 82 

Johnson, Andrew 80 

Justice of the Peace 123 

Juvenile Court 131 

Keystone Party 196 

Land Office 83 

Legislation 56, 58 

Legislative Reference Bureau 20n, 67 

Legislature 10, 18, 24, 42, 44, 47, 49, 52, 79 

Lieutenant Governor 16, 76, 78, 79, 80, 158 

Lincoln Party ■ 196 

Livestock Sanitary Board 105 

Lord High Chancellor 81 

Magistrate 123, 129 

Mayor 158, 163, 174 

Minority Representation 147 

Medical Inspection = . . . 92 

Municipal Corporations 88, 141, 144, 190 

Municipal Court 129, 132 

New Party 204 

Nomination Papers 204 

Non-Partisan Ballot 175, 176 

Non-Partisan Elections 196, 199, 239 

Opening Ballot Box 234 

Orphans' Court : 137 

Osteopaths 96 

Pardon Board 81 

Parties 193 ff. 223, 258 ff. 

Party Raiding 203 

Pennsylvania State College 105, 106 

Personal Registration 63 

Philadelphia 88, 93, 128, 143, 144, 149, 169 

Philadelphia Party 196 

Pittsburgh 88, 93, 128, 169 

Playgrounds Movement 60 

Poor Districts 143, 187, ff. 



INDEX. 271 

Page 

Poor Laws 188 

Postmaster General 77 

Practical Citizen 56 

Preferential Primary 225, 227, 231 

Presidential Electors 225, 226 

Presidential Primary 225 

President of the Senate 16, 80 

President of the U. S 76, 79 

Primary 195, 200, 223 

Printing 24 

Professional Qualification 86 

Progressive Party 205 

Proportional Representation 199n, 239 

Prothonotary 136, 146 

Public Schools 50, 86, 90 

Public Service Commission 107 

Railroad Commission , 107 

Recall 175 

Referendum 175, 178, 194, 195 

Reform Within the Party 258 

Registrars 211 

Register of Wills 146 

Registration 202, 207, 224 

Registration Commissioner 210 

Representative Districts 13 

Republican 205 

Roberts, Senator Algernon T 251 

Roll Call 27, 28, 33, 40 

Roosevelt, Theodore 17, 257 

Root, Senator 64 

Rules of House and Senate 18, 19, 28n, 29 

Salaries, Burgess 181 

Councilmen 173 

General Assembly 15 

Governor 79 

Lieutenant Governor 80 

Mayor 173 

Secretary of the Commonwealth . . 80 

Schnitzelbank Song 35, 36 

School Code 25, 51n, 69, 87, 90 

School Districts 88, 143, 187 ff. 

Secretary of Agriculture 77, 103, 104, 106 

Commerce 77 

the Commonwealth 77, 78, 80 

The Interior .' 77 

Internal Affairs 77, 78, 106 

Labor 77 



272 index. 

Page 

Secretarj 7 of the Navy 77 

State 77, 81 

the Treasury 77 

War 77 

Senate 10, 25, 29, 33, 40, 41, 87 

Senatorial Districts 13 

Sergeant-at-Arms 30 

Sheriff 145 

Short Ballot 64, 82 

Small Council , 64 

Society to Protect Children from Cruelty 48n. 

Speaker 16, 17, 20, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 38 

State Board of Charities 49 

State Board of Education 87 

States ' Duties, Doctrine of 7 

State and Nation 1, 11, 28, 195 

State Police . . . 117 

Statistician, Department of Agriculture 103 

States' Rights, Doctrine of 7 

State Treasurer 77, 78, 82, 115 

Superintendent, Assistant County 91 

County 91 

District 91 

of Public Instruction 78, 87, 88, 91 

Superior Court 139 

Supreme Court : 137 

United States 138 

Theories 196 

Theories of Government 9, 81 

Townships 143, 179 ff, 183 

Uniform Primary 223, 224 

U. S. Senators, Election of 225 

Vacancies 234 

Van Buren, Martin 80 

Veterinary Science, Division of 104 

Veto ../. 29, 79 

Vice President 77, 79, 80, 158 

Vocational Education 93 

Washington Party 205 

Watchers * 247 

Water Supply Commission Ill 

Widow 's Pension 61 

Wight, Andrew R 266n. 

William Penn Party 196 

Workers 247 

Workmen 's Compensation 60, 119 

Yea and Nay Voting 28, 30, 33 



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